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The US is a wasteland in the Mortal Engines Quartet because the cities would be "too cool" compared to the ones in the books

Giant, roving cities like New York and Chicago do sound pretty cool, to be fair

Mortal Engines Movie Screenshot — Image credit: Universal Pictures

News by Trent Cannon, Contributing writer

Published on Wed Nov 13 2024

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The world of Mortal Engines has always been a post-apocalyptic wasteland, but one area has always seemed particularly off-limits to the characters. The US was always described as a wasteland where nothing could live and there weren’t any Traction Cities roving the landscape looking for resources. The reason for that is that author Philip Reeve didn’t want American cities to be too interesting compared to their European counterparts.

During his panel at London MCM x EGX in October 2024, Reeve explained that the decision to wipe the United States off the map in the Mortal Engines series stemmed from wanting to keep the focus on Europe’s traction cities. “I made the decision way back when I wrote Mortal Engines that there wouldn’t be an America because I thought it would be too annoying,” he explained during his spotlight panel. “I thought, ‘If there was a Traction Chicago and Traction New York running around, it would be cooler than the other Traction Cities, so let’s get rid of America.’ So, it is just a big wasteland where no one lives.”

That is a bit harsh, but Reeve did admit that there was hope for a mild retcon a few moments later. He felt that leaving a whole continent uninhabited was closing off potential stories so he suggested that we might find out what is really going on in the United States in future books. However, he didn’t say what form those stories would take. It could be books set in the American Wasteland or it could just be characters who have been there coming back to report what they’ve seen. We won’t know until he’s written it, after all.

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