Todd Howard Says "No" To Elder Scrolls TV Adaptation

thegamer.com:

The Fallout TV series is finally here and it's already being hailed as one of the best video game adaptations to date, which has plenty wondering if other Bethesda properties will make a similar leap to the world of streaming.

Of course, the big one on the tip of everyone's tongues is The Elder Scrolls, but Todd Howard says that he's shot down countless pitches to adapt it for the small screen.

"There's nothing in the works," Howard told IGN. "Everybody asks about Elder Scrolls and I keep saying no. And I would approach those - I'll probably say no. You never know if [something's] gonna click. But I think [Fallout] really came out of, 'We think things are aligning to do a high-quality job.' It wasn't forced. It was kind of a natural relationship and, 'Hey, this sounds really cool.' As opposed to, 'We should have a show,' right? It never came from that."

Granted, Howard says that Fallout used to be in a similar boat. "Everyone wanted to make a TV show or a movie, and I was like, 'Nahhh.' I wasn't really feeling it." Clearly, things changed, so perhaps one day we'll see Bethesda give into an Elder Scrolls adaptation. For now, though, it looks like Tamriel is off the table.

Interestingly, rumours have been floating about Elder Scrolls adaptations for years now. As recently as in 2020, a report surfaced that Netflix was developing a series based on the games that it hoped would be as big as The Witcher.

Every Fallout game is at least 75 percent off right now if you wanna see what all the fuss is.

With Howard revealing that he's shot down pitches and that nothing else is in the works, it's unlikely we'll see anything come of these rumours, but perhaps Netflix is one of the companies to have pitched an adaptation to Howard.

From humble beginnings with 1994's The Elder Scrolls: Arena to the award-winning Skyrim in 2011 and The Elder Scrolls Online, Bethesda's long-running RPG series has continued to push boundaries.