A cheeky candid picture from the set of Amazon’s upcoming third season of Fallout has some odd implications for both the literal and figurative direction of the TV show’s narrative, as a rather specific Brotherhood of Steel flag has fans convinced that the story might take us to Fallout 3’s Capital Wasteland.
As spotted by GamesRadar, a fan over on the r/Fallout subreddit happened to stroll into the Los Angeles Natural History Museum during the filming of Amazon’s Fallout TV series. Now, if you look at the pictures below, you might be wondering exactly how any of this ties into Fallout 3’s Capital Wasteland—especially considering that, following the events of Fallout’s Season 2 finale, Cooper is supposed to be heading toward Colorado next.
The clue here is the little symbol on the Brotherhood of Steel flag, which fans theorize may belong to the Order of the Quill: a Brotherhood order that was introduced in Fallout 3.
Now, on one hand, this isn’t airtight proof for several reasons. For a start, we’ve never seen the Order of the Quill’s flag—in fact, there’s no proof in the games that they even have a flag. Secondly, it doesn’t really make sense for the main characters in the Fallout TV series to make the 40-day-long hike to Washington, even if it is technically in the same direction as Colorado from New Vegas.
But, on the other hand, I think the L.A. Natural History Museum would make a great stand-in for the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington. Plus, the main characters don’t actually have to visit the Capital Wasteland to justify there being a small scene there. It could be a flashback, or an introduction to the setup of the fourth season of the show—point is, it’s not out of the realm of possibility.
Besides, everyone thought that season 2 of Fallout was setting up the reveal of Fallout 3 Remastered, but Todd Howard himself confirmed that’s already in the works a few weeks ago. Surely Bethesda and Amazon wouldn’t miss the opportunity for a bit of cross-media synergy a second time, right?