Fallout (American TV series)


Fallout is an American post-apocalyptic drama television series created by Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet for Amazon Prime Video. Based on the role-playing video game franchise created by Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, the series is set two centuries after the Great War of 2077, in which society has collapsed following a nuclear holocaust. It stars Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Kyle MacLachlan, Moisés Arias, Xelia Mendes-Jones, Walton Goggins, and Frances Turner.
Amazon purchased the rights to produce a live-action project in 2020, and the series was announced that July, with Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy's Kilter Films joined by Bethesda Game Studios in the production. Nolan directed the first three episodes. Bethesda Game Studios producer Todd Howard, who directed various games in the series, signed on to executive produce alongside Nolan and Joy. Robertson-Dworet and Wagner were hired as the series' showrunners in January 2022, and Goggins and Purnell were cast in February and March, respectively.
Fallout premiered on Prime Video on April 10, 2024. It received generally positive reviews, with praise for the performances, writing, visuals, production design, and faithfulness to the source material. That month, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on December 16, 2025. In May 2025, ahead of the second-season premiere, the series was renewed for a third season. Fallout has received three Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Goggins, as well as two Creative Arts Emmy Awards out of 14 nominations.

Premise

The series depicts the aftermath of the Great War of 2077, an apocalyptic nuclear exchange between the United States and China. The series takes place in an alternate history of Earth where advances in nuclear technology after World War II led to the emergence of a retrofuturistic society and a subsequent resource war.
Many survivors took refuge in fallout bunkers known as Vaults, most being unaware that each Vault was designed to perform sociological and psychological experiments on the vault dwellers on behalf of Vault-Tec and numerous other American corporations, who secretly perpetrated the apocalypse by launching the initial salvo of nuclear bombs.
More than 200 years later in 2296, a young woman, Lucy, leaves her home in Vault 33 to venture into the dangerous wasteland of a devastated Los Angeles on a quest to find her kidnapped father. Along the way, she encounters a Brotherhood of Steel squire named Maximus and a legendary ghoul bounty hunter who was once a famous actor named Cooper Howard, each having their own pasts and agendas to settle.
In the second season, Lucy and Cooper travel to New Vegas hoping to learn the truth about Vault-Tec, Cooper's wife and daughter, and Lucy's father. Maximus, having been promoted in rank within the Brotherhood, becomes increasingly disillusioned with the Brotherhood's internal corruption and the conflict between his own conscience and the order's code.

Cast and characters

Main

  • Ella Purnell as Lucy MacLean, a Vault 33 Dweller
  • * Luciana VanDette and Grace Kelly Quigley portray young Lucy MacLean
  • Aaron Moten as Maximus, a squire of the Brotherhood of Steel and later ally of Lucy
  • * Amir Carr portrays young Maximus
  • Kyle MacLachlan as Hank MacLean, Lucy and Norm's father and Overseer of Vault 33
  • Moisés Arias as Norm MacLean, Vault 33 resident and Lucy's younger brother
  • * Cody Alexander Guevara portrays young Norm MacLean
  • Xelia Mendes-Jones as Dane, a scribe of the Brotherhood of Steel
  • Walton Goggins as Cooper Howard / The Ghoul, a Hollywood actor and Vault-Tec ambassador before the Great War, who mutated into a ghoul and is now a gunslinger and bounty hunter
  • Frances Turner as Barb Howard, Cooper's wife and high-ranking Vault-Tec executive

    Recurring

  • Sarita Choudhury as Kate Williams / Lee Moldaver, a nuclear scientist who survived the Great War and later became a New California Republic commander
  • Leslie Uggams as Betty Pearson, Vault 33 councillor and later Overseer
  • * Princess Bey portrays young Betty Pearson
  • Johnny Pemberton as Thaddeus, a squire of the Brotherhood of Steel
  • Zach Cherry as Woody Thomas, Vault 33 councillor
  • Annabel O'Hagan as Stephanie Harper, pregnant Vault 33 resident
  • Dave Register as Chet, Lucy and Norm's cousin and Vault 33 gatekeeper
  • Rodrigo Luzzi as Reg McPhee, Vault 33 councillor
  • Leer Leary as Davey, Vault 33 resident
  • Elle Vertes as Rose MacLean, Lucy and Norm's mother
  • Teagan Meredith as Janey Howard, Cooper's daughter
  • Michael Cristofer as Elder Cleric Quintus, Maximus' superior and leader of the Brotherhood of Steel's San Fernando chapter
  • Jon Daly as the Snake Oil Salesman, who is a mercantile denizen of the wasteland
  • Justin Theroux as Robert Edwin House, the CEO of RobCo Industries and ruler of the New Vegas Strip in 2281
  • * Rafi Silver portrays a body-double version of the character
  • Rachel Marsh, Rajat Suresh, and Jeremy Levick as Claudia, Clark, and Pete, part of a group of Vault-Tec employees who were cryogenically frozen in Vault 31
  • Adam Faison as Ronnie McCurtry, Bud Askin's former assistant and one of the Vault-Tec employees who were cryogenically frozen in Vault 31
  • Jon Gries as Biff, a ranger for the New California Republic

    Guest

;Introduced in season 1
  • Mykelti Williamson as Honcho, a bounty hunter who revives Cooper from imprisonment
  • Matt Berry as:
  • * "Mr. Handy", a General Atomics helper bot in 2077
  • * "Snip Snip", a Mr. Handy turned organ harvester
  • * Sebastian Leslie, an English actor who provided the voice of the Handys, and Cooper's pre-apocalypse friend
  • Cameron Cowperthwaite as Monty, a raider who "married" Lucy as part of a ruse to kidnap Hank
  • Jacinto Taras Riddick as Cleric Felix, high-ranking member of the Brotherhood of Steel
  • Joel Marsh Garland and Jacob A. Ware as Biggie and Slim, Honcho's minions
  • Mike Doyle and Janie Brookshire as Bob Spencer and Rhonda Spencer, Cooper's pre-apocalypse employers for their child's birthday party
  • Michael Emerson as Dr. Siggi Wilzig, an enigmatic defector from the Enclave whose head carries the solution to Cold Fusion
  • Michael Rapaport as Knight Titus, whom Maximus initially serves and later impersonates
  • Dale Dickey as Ma June, a cantankerous shopkeeper in the settlement of Filly
  • Edythe Jason as Barv, June's partner and a resident of Filly
  • Michael Abbott Jr. as a lonesome farmer living just outside Filly
  • Neal Huff as Roger, a ghoul and friend of Cooper's, slowly succumbing to ferality
  • Michael Esper as Bud Askins / Brain-on-a-Roomba, a senior junior vice president at Vault-Tec in 2077 and the Overseer of Vault 31 post-war
  • Matty Cardarople and Elvis Valentino Lopez as Huey and Squirrel, a pair of bumbling organ harvesters
  • Chris Parnell as Benjamin, the Cyclops Overseer of Vault 4
  • Cherien Dabis as Birdie, a surface-born resident of Vault 4 and former resident of Shady Sands
  • Glenn Fleshler as Sorrel Booker, the self-titled "President" of The Govermint who seeks to maintain order in the Wasteland
  • Dallas Goldtooth as Charles Whiteknife, a pre-apocalypse actor friend of Cooper's
  • Eric Berryman as Lloyd Hawthorne, the first overseer of Vault 4
  • Angel Desai as Cassandra Hawthorne, Lloyd's wife
  • Fred Armisen as DJ Carl, the host of an old-timey radio station
  • Erik Estrada as Adam, a former ranger for the New California Republic turned farmer whose son is affiliated with Moldaver
  • Michael Mulheren as Frederick Sinclair, a representative of Big MT and the founder of the Sierra Madre Casino
  • James Yaegashi as Leon Von Felden, a top West-Tek executive
  • Rebecca Watson as Julia Masters, a top REPCONN executive
;Introduced in season 2
  • Susan Berger as Old Woman Gretch, an elderly soup seller
  • Jared Bankens as Nick the Prick, the leader of the Great Khans raiders
  • Christopher Matthew Cook as Bill, a pre-apocalypse bar patron
  • Kumail Nanjiani as Paladin Xander Harkness, a liaison to the Commonwealth Brotherhood of Steel
  • Bashir Salahuddin and Shinelle Azoroh as Joseph and Julia, Maximus's father and mother
  • Brian Thompson, Sisa Grey, and Chris Browning as the Coronado Elder, Yosemite Elder, and Grand Canyon Elder, the cleric leaders of separate Brotherhood of Steel chapters
  • Judson Mills as Stephen Winthrop, a rich businessman cryogenically frozen by Vault-Tec
  • Tim Soergel as Gnatius, a knight of the Brotherhood
  • Macaulay Culkin as Lacerta Legate, a high-ranking member of the Legion, a militaristic cult inspired by Ancient Roman traditions
  • Martha Kelly as Representative Diane Welch, a pre-apocalypse congresswoman for the district of Glendale
  • Barbara Eve Harris as Rodriguez, a captain of the New California Republic
  • Guy Heilweil, Ava Scarola, and Alyssa Riley Ndati as Perry, Lois, and Trudy, children who work in Thaddeus' factory
  • Ciel Shi as Wenjie, a pre-apocalypse Chinese soldier
  • Edwin Lee Gibson as Shotgun Jeff, a bartender in New Vegas
  • Tony Robinette as Simon, the shopkeeper for the Sunny's Sundries general store in New Vegas
  • Ron Perlman as a super mutant who encounters Cooper
  • Clancy Brown as the last pre-apocalypse President of the United States
  • Natasha Henstridge as Joan, Stephanie's pre-apocalypse mother who attempts to escape with her from Canada

    Episodes

Season 1 (2024)

Season 2 (2025–26)

Production

Development

Bethesda had been approached several times about a television adaptation of the Fallout video games since the developer released Fallout 3 in 2008, according to Bethesda's Todd Howard, though he felt none of the suggestions met the vision of the Fallout series. Bethesda's marketing executive Pete Hines had also warned the company in 2015 about the potential impact of a poor adaptation of their video games, saying, "There's way more things that can go wrong than can go right with this," since the adaptation's director may override the vision of the series. Hines pointed to the example of the 2005 Doom film as an example of a bad adaptation.
The situation changed when Jonathan Nolan approached Bethesda with his idea of a Fallout television series, having been an avid player of the game series. Howard, having seen what Nolan had created with the Westworld series, found that Nolan had a clear vision for the adaptation, and agreed this approach was a good way to bring the game series to the television screen. Bethesda gave Nolan the freedom to craft a story as long as it remained true to the Fallout universe but served as its unique narrative within the game series and not translate one of the existing games to television.
The television adaptation was formally announced in July 2020 under Amazon Studios with Nolan and Lisa Joy developing the work. Joy described the series as "a gonzo, crazy, funny, adventure, and mindfuck like none you've ever seen before". In January 2022, Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner were hired as show runners for the series, with Nolan set to direct the pilot episode. The series is canon within the Fallout continuity. Howard wanted an original story instead of an adaptation of the games, though the series incorporates game storylines and factions, such as the Brotherhood of Steel. The series' 2296 setting is the furthest in the future that the Fallout franchise has occurred. On April 18, 2024, Amazon Prime Video renewed the series for a second season. The first season had a budget of $153 million. In May 2025, the series was renewed for a third season.