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 (particularly of Purnell, Moten, and Goggins), 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.

219 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 (guest season 1) and Grace Kelly Quigley (guest season 2) 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 (guest seasons 1–2)
• 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 (guest season 2)
• Xelia Mendes-Jones as Dane (season 1; recurring season 2), 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 (season 2; recurring season 1), Cooper's wife and high-ranking Vault-Tec executive

Recurring

• Sarita Choudhury as Kate Williams / Lee Moldaver (season 1; guest season 2), a nuclear scientist who survived the Great War and later became a New California Republic (NCR) commander
• Leslie Uggams as Betty Pearson, Vault 33 councillor and later Overseer
  • Princess Bey portrays young Betty Pearson (guest seasons 1–2)
• Johnny Pemberton as Thaddeus, a squire of the Brotherhood of Steel
• Zach Cherry as Woody Thomas (season 1; guest season 2), Vault 33 councillor
• Annabel O'Hagan as Stephanie Harper, pregnant Vault 33 resident. In the second season, she becomes the overseer of Vault 32.
• 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 (season 1), Lucy and Norm's mother
• Teagan Meredith as Janey Howard (season 1; guest season 2), Cooper's daughter
• Michael Cristofer as Elder Cleric Quintus (season 2; guest season 1), Maximus' superior and leader of the Brotherhood of Steel's San Fernando chapter
• Jon Daly as the Snake Oil Salesman (season 2; guest season 1), who is a mercantile denizen of the wasteland
• Justin Theroux as Robert Edwin House (season 2), the CEO of RobCo Industries and ruler of the New Vegas Strip in 2281. He previously appeared in the video game Fallout: New Vegas.
  • Rafi Silver portrays a body-double version of the character (season 2; guest season 1)
• Rachel Marsh as Claudia (season 2), a novice Vault-Tec employee who was cryogenically frozen in Vault 31
• Adam Faison as Ronnie McCurtry (season 2), Bud Askin's former assistant and one of the Vault-Tec employees who were cryogenically frozen in Vault 31
• Rajat Suresh and Jeremy Levick as Clark and Pete (season 2), part of the group of Vault-Tec employees who were cryogenically frozen in Vault 31
• Martha Kelly as Representative Diane Welch (season 2), a pre-apocalypse congresswoman for the district of Glendale
• Jon Gries as Biff (season 2), a ranger for the New California Republic

Guest

Introduced in season 2

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 (later renamed Amazon MGM 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.

Casting

In February 2022, Walton Goggins was cast in a lead role as Cooper Howard, a Hollywood actor who became a ghoul after the bombs fell. In March 2022, Ella Purnell joined the cast as a peppy Vault-Dweller. In June 2022, Kyle MacLachlan (Hank MacLean), Xelia Mendes-Jones (Dane) and Aaron Moten (Maximus) joined as regulars. In October 2023, additional casting including Sarita Choudhury (Moldaver), Michael Emerson (Dr. Siggi Wilzig), Leslie Uggams (Betty Pearson) and Zach Cherry (Woody Thomas) was announced.

In November 2024, Macaulay Culkin joined the cast for the second season in an undisclosed role. In August 2025, it was revealed that Justin Theroux would portray Robert House for the second season.