Fallout Season 2, which continues the smash hit series adaptation of Bethesda Softworks blockbuster video game, Fallout, is back with its premiere episode. Who are the principal cast members featured in the series and what do they do in the first episode of the new season?
Created by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, Fallout Season 1 was released in April of 2024 and became an instant hit on Prime Video. Season 1 was also a hit with Rotten Tomatoes critics, which awarded it a 93% “fresh” critics’ score based on 133 reviews.
Season 1 not only brought in big viewership for the streaming platform, but it also earned 16 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actor Walton Goggins and Outstanding Writing for Robertson-Dworet and Wagner, and won an Emmy for Outstanding Music Supervision.
The logline for Fallout Season 2 of the series reads, “The new season of Fallout will pick up in the aftermath of Season 1’s epic finale and take audiences along for a journey through the wasteland of the Mojave to the post-apocalyptic city of New Vegas.”
Fallout Season 2 returned to Prime Video on Tuesday night with Episode 1. Pictured below are the core cast of actors how their characters are involved in the first episode of the new season.
Note: The rest of this article includes some spoiler details from “Fallout” Season 2, Episode 1.
Ella Purnell (Lucy MacLean)
Ella Purnell returns in the lead role in Fallout as Lucy MacLean, an optimistic vault dweller who leaves Vault 33 in Season 1 to search for her missing father, Hank.
Sadly, Lucy discovers during the Season 1 finale that the father she loved growing up isn’t exactly the person she once idolized. At the beginning of Season 2, Lucy begins her quest to New Vegas — along with The Ghoul and their canine companion Dogmeat — to bring Hank to justice. Before they reach New Vegas, though, they find themselves in a deadly dilemma with the Great Khans.
Purnell’s most recent screen credits include the hit TV drama Yellowjackets and dark comedy series Sweetpea.
Walton Goggins (Cooper Howard/The Ghoul)
Walton Goggins plays the nuclear irradiated antihero, The Ghoul, who has been walking the dusty and desolated environs of The Wasteland for 200 years.
Before the nuclear apocalypse, The Ghoul was the famous film star Cooper Howard. In Season 2, The Ghoul continues to look for answers regarding the fate of his wife, Barb (Frances Turner), and young daughter, Janey (Teagan Meredith), in the aftermath of the nuclear devastation.
In a flashback scene in Season 2 Episode 1, Cooper is asked by cold fusion scientist Lee Moldaver (Sarita Choudhury) to continue to gather intel on Barb, who is a pivotal Vault-Tech executive, and the company’s plans for post-apocalyptic society. In addition, Lee asks Cooper to use his Hollywood fame and his wife’s access to get near the nefarious Robert House (Justin Theroux), who is building a privately owned missile system in Las Vegas.
Goggins’ recent screen credits include the hit TV mystery drama The White Lotus Season 3 and the comedy series The Righteous Gemstones.
Aaron Moten (Maximus)
Aaron Moten stars as Maximus, a member of the Brotherhood of Steel who befriends Lucy MacLean in Season 1 before romantic sparks begin to fly between the two. In the Season 1 finale, Maximus is part of the Brotherhood of Steel’s assault on the New California Republic, which is headed by Lee Moldaver.
Moldaver is mortally wounded by gunfire in the attack, but since Dane (Xelia Mendes-Jones) happens across Maximus standing over the resistance leader after she died, the assumption was that Maximus killed her. As such, Maximus is knighted by the Brotherhood of Steel for assassinating Moldaver, even though he’s devastated by the fact that she was truly not the enemy.
Maximus is not featured in the first episode of Fallout Season 2, but he is sure to become an integral part of the action as the season unfolds.
Moten’s recent screen credits include the films Emancipation and Father Stu, as well as a role in TV series Native Son.
Kyle MacLachlan (Hank MacLean)
Kyle MacLachlan stars as Hank MacLean, the former Overseer of Vault 33 who was being held in captivity by Lee Moldaver during Fallout Season 1. When Lucy locates Hank, who is being held captive by Lee at the New California Republic compound, she learns of her father’s dark past, including a horrifying revelation about the fate of her mother.
Maximus — not aware of the devastation Hank has caused, including the bombing of his home in Shady Sands — frees Hank from his cage. Hank, in turn, hijacks some Brotherhood of Steel armor and, after a confrontation with Lucy and The Ghoul, jets away in the outfit.
In Season 2, Episode 1, Hank finds refuge in an empty, cavernous Vault-Tec lab. After he sheds his Brotherhood of Steel armor for a contemporary business suit, Hank prepares to conduct experiments with one of the deadly brain-computer interfaces that Robert House was toying with at the beginning of the episode.
The Twin Peaks icon’s most recent screen credits include the TV drama The Lowdown and comedy series Overcompensating.
Frances Turner (Barb Howard)
Francis Turner plays the powerful and highly influential Vault-Tec executive Barb Howard in Fallout.
While Barb is trying to secure a vault for her husband, Cooper, and their daughter, Janey, to live in the event of a nuclear apocalypse, Cooper — via the guidance of Lee Moldaver — begins to spy on her.
In Season 2, Episode 1, as Cooper hears through a bugged conversation how Barb wants to execute Vault-Tec’s plans of starting the nuclear apocalypse themselves, he needs to pretend that all is status quo when he’s around her.
Turner’s recent screen credits include the dark superhero satire The Boys and the drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as well as the romantic film drama After Everything.
Moisés Arias (Norm MacLean)
Moisés Arias stars as Norm MacLean, the son of Hank and brother of Lucy. Norm’s story in Fallout Season 2 begins where the Season 1 finale ended — trapped in Vault 31.
Norm — who is being taunted by the Vault’s Overseer, Bud’s Brain-on-a-Roomba (voice of Michael Esper), as he runs out of food and water — threatens to get even with the disembodied brain of Vault-Tech executive Bud Askins by thawing out a bunch of Vault-Tec executives who are cryogenically frozen.
Arias’ most recent screen credits include the sci-fi action thrillers Divinity and Samaritan, as well as the biographical crime drama American Murderer.
Annabel O’Hagan (Steph Harper)
Annabel O’Hagan stars as Steph Harper, who in Season 2, Episode 1, is stressing out as she tries to settle into her new role as Overseer of Vault 32.
Like Season 1, Steph continues to hold sway in Season 2 over the lovelorn Chet (Dave Register), whose hopes of romance with her have dwindled into the role of continuously watching over her baby, which he didn’t father. Whenever Chet raises any objections, Steph shuts him down.
O’Hagan’s recent screen credits include the comedy drama Rent Free and the TV series drama Dear Edward.
All eight episodes of Fallout Season 1 and Season 2, Episode 1 are streaming on Prime Video.
