A Wasteland TV show was "very close" to happening according to inXile CEO Brian Fargo, so much so that a full script for a 2-hour pilot was produced -- and you can read it right now.
The Wasteland franchise has seen a bit of a revival in recent years with the launch of Wasteland 3 back in 2020. Apparently, its success hasn't gone unnoticed by Hollywood -- inXile Entertainment CEO Brian Fargo has shared that it was almost made into a TV show, and he's shared the script for a full 2-hour pilot episode.
What the Wasteland TV Show Would Have Been Like
The Wasteland TV show might have been a pretty solid representation of the game if it were actually produced. As all adaptations go, though, it wouldn't have been a perfect recreation of the beloved video game franchise.
"Wasteland was very close to becoming a TV series," Fargo said in a submission to the /r/Wasteland subreddit (via /r/Games). "So close in fact that a [2-hour] pilot was written. I really enjoyed this take on the franchise, and the dark humor of the writers. There was still a bit more work to do and a few things off canon but this shows how the sensibilities would have been."
It looks like Angela Deth would have been one of the main characters judging by the script for the pilot; the episode would have opened with Angela tackling a suspect named Mad Dog in a hotel made out of a ruined airplane. The characteristic dark humor is evident throughout the script based on the little bit I've read.
While TV shows and movies based on video games were a bit of a joke for a very long time, things have been shifting over the years. Competing post-apocalyptic franchise Fallout is getting a TV show from the Westworld creators and The Last of Us is also getting a TV show sometime next year at the earliest. There are tons of other shows in the works, too, including series based on Twisted Metal, System Shock, and Hunt: Showdown.
You can read the full script for the Wasteland TV show pilot if you're curious to see what the story would have been like. While we probably won't get a TV show anytime soon, there's plenty of fun to be had in the franchise's latest entry: you can buy Wasteland 3 for PC via Steam starting at $19.99 or your regional equivalent, a 50% discount that lasts until April 15, 2022.
