It very much has to do with The Ghoul, played by Walton Goggins.

By Louise Griffin

Published: Friday, 05 April 2024 at 12:00 PM


As fans of the Fallout games wait in anticipation to see just how faithful the TV show is to its source material, Todd Howard, the king of video game development, has said the series can actually do one thing the games can’t.

The Prime Video series will star Ella Purnell as vault-dweller Lucy MacLean, after an apocalyptic disaster wipes the face of Los Angeles for good.

Along the way, we also meet Maximus (Aaron Moten) and the eerie character The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) in the wasteland.

Speaking at a Q&A after a special screening in London, Howard, who has led development of the Fallout games, said: “As I think about the franchise, the one thing the show is able to do that we were really never able to do in the games in the ways that we would have loved, is show so much of the past.

“Because that’s one of the things that really makes the world of Fallout special.

Ella Purnell (Lucy) in Fallout wearing a blue and yellow jumpsuit looking behind her
Ella Purnell (Lucy) in Fallout.
Amazon Studios

“So the way the show mines that, Walton’s character and the other things that occur in the past, filling in all those things with Vault-Tec, and I don’t want to get into spoilers, either, but they just did so many great things and the way we discussed it, there was so much to mine there in the franchise that would be both additive to it, and also really, really special for if you’re already a fan of the series.”

Show creator Jonathan Nolan added that taking from the Fallout universe is like “having the world’s greatest train set”.

He added: “We had early conversations with Geneva [Robertson-Dworet] and Graham [Wagner, co-showrunners] in terms of our favourite moments from the games.

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“I started with Fallout 1 back in ’97. I got on board with Fallout 3. But we talked about all of the most exciting, original and unique moments that that originated in this universe, then we hired the most talented crew possible and figured out how to how to make it real.”

The wait is almost over, with fans getting to enter Vault 33 in just under a week’s time. As for what they’ll find when they get there… we’re saying nothing.