Fallout Season 2 Heads to New Vegas, Dodges Canon Endings

Prime Video’s Fallout series has quickly become a standout in the world of game-to-screen adaptations. Rather than sticking to a single storyline from the games, the show borrows bits and pieces from across the franchise, building its own path. After the first season took viewers from Vault 33 into the wilds, the next chapter heads straight for New Vegas, bringing with it everything from Deathclaws and Radroaches to the likes of Caesar’s Legion and the ever-sinister Robert House.

“We sort of approach it like we do a new game,”

says Todd Howard, executive producer and creative director at Bethesda.

“Like, hey, we’re starting fresh, and okay, we’re going back to Vegas. Number one, we’ve got to honour the journey that every player had there, and manoeuvring that is tricky.”

He reckons the showrunners, Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, have found clever ways to keep things authentic while still taking a few risks.

“We’re fans, so [it’s] what would we want to see as a fan, make it as authentic as possible, and just come at it with a lot of thought, a lot of love, [take] what was already there, but also take some swings.”

Back in the Wasteland

The first season introduced a fresh cast, loosely following the games’ structure: a Vault dweller heads out into the unknown. The story focused on three main characters: Lucy, the naive Vault dweller searching for her kidnapped dad Hank; Maximus, a hopeful Brotherhood of Steel recruit; and the Ghoul, a bounty hunter with a cowboy streak who was once a Hollywood star before the bombs dropped.

Season two picks up with Lucy and the Ghoul, still not exactly mates, teaming up to track down Hank and bring him to justice. There’s a heap of flashbacks, showing off a glitzy pre-war Vegas and glimpses of the Ghoul’s old life as Cooper Howard, just before everything went pear-shaped.

“We get to spend more time with Cooper this season, and, and this is a man that has had the rug pulled out from underneath him,”

says Walton Goggins.

“He realises just how little control he’s had over anything in his life, and, and it broke my heart.”

Hank’s dodgy past comes to light, much to Lucy’s disappointment. At the end of season one, he’s seen walking away from his daughter in stolen Brotherhood armour, heading for Vegas. Lucy’s left wondering why, and her brother Norm is still stuck underground with his own dramas. While chaos reigns above, the Vault dwellers aren’t having an easy time either, and it won’t be long before more of them head topside.

New Vegas Reimagined

For fans, the attention to detail is hard to miss. New Vegas has been recreated almost exactly, from the Atomic Wrangler Casino to the fortified Strip entrance. There are nods everywhere for eagle-eyed viewers, like a poster for Maxis, a magician who never made it to his big show, and a reference to pre-war singer Joey Baxter.

When it comes to standout sets, Howard singles out Mick and Ralph’s, praising the team for nailing the little details—ammo, stimpaks, and all the rest. Moten’s favourite is the Brotherhood’s warehouse, the Sunset Sarsaparilla factory, and the “alien in the fridge.” Aliens, classic green-skinned types, are part of the New Vegas world, though whether we’ll see one alive this season is anyone’s guess.

Endings Left Open

Anyone who’s played New Vegas knows there are four possible endings, none officially canon. Some punters wondered if the show would pick one and make it official. The options: Robert House takes over, the Legion rules, the NCR annexes the Wasteland, or the player’s Courier claims New Vegas. Season two seems to blend elements from all of them, keeping things open.

Geneva Robertson-Dworet confirms the show isn’t locking in any one ending.

“This season of Fallout takes place about 15 years after the events of Fallout: New Vegas,”

she says.

“And we tried as much as possible to avoid saying, again, [that] any canonical ending is real. Instead, 15 years have gone by, and Vegas is not exactly as you remember it, because naturally, in the Wasteland, there’s constantly shifts, right? There’s warring factions trying to kill each other, take over each other’s territory every day. So, things would not remain the same over 15 years. [There are] some things fans will recognise as very, very much the same. But other things have changed.”

The show’s popularity has also given the games a boost, especially Fallout ‘76. Howard notes that the Ghoul’s appearance in the series has inspired new content in the game, with the character now playing a role in the latest update.

“I will say the popularity show is way more than even we expected. So it really was making sure that games are ready for all the players who are coming into them,”

he says.

“Particularly Fallout ‘76 has had this resurgence of popularity, and one of the things that’s influenced it is bringing [in] a character like the Ghoul, this character who lived before the bombs. And it’s interesting to think that every Fallout game that you’ve played, he was alive somewhere in the wasteland, like you think about that. So having him come into ‘76 and play a role there has been really great and so much of the stuff in ‘76 with this update, is really inspired by season two.”

Fallout season two lands on Prime Video on December 17.