Microsoft has purchased ZeniMax and it’s subsidiaries (such as Bethesda) for 7.5 billion, that isn’t new news. However, just a week ago the board of directors at ZeniMax was dissolved. Pete Hines, the Senior Vice President of Communications and Global Marketing at Bethesda confirmed this.
On the board of directors was an eclectic mix of people, including celebrities and executives from several different industries. This includes people like former Major League Baseball player Cal Ripken Junior, a private equity executive named Michael Dominguez, and even Donald Trump‘s brother, Robert Trump, before he passed away in 2020.
However, the important ones (and they may not seem important right now, but we will get to that) are people like the former CBS CEO Leslie Moonves, former MGM CEO Harry Sloan, Pirates of The Caribbean producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and an entertainment attorney named Ernest Del.
Bethesda has been approached many, many times to make movies and TV shows, said Hines. But on the advice of Moonves, Sloan, Del, Bruckheimer, and others, ZeniMax and Bethesda have always declined. The topic of not approving movies and TV shows with their IPs came up in 2015, and Hines said: “We have a lot of folks who really know that space really, really well.”
Bethesda has announced that they are now making a Fallout TV series with Amazon. Westworld’s Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan are attached to produce it.
