Prime Video’s Fallout TV show ended with a clear nod to a much-loved Fallout video game, but there are still many questions left unanswered by Season 1. One thing we do know now is that a major character from the games — and who only makes a brief appearance in Season 1 — will play a part in Season 2.
Warning: Spoilers for Fallout Season 1 follow.
In an interview with Variety, showrunners Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet confirmed Robert House “will be involved” in Season 2. Fallout video game fans know Robert House as Mr. House, one of the main characters in Obsidian’s Fallout New Vegas. In that game, Mr. House runs New Vegas as a brain plugged into a supercomputer that has extended his existence from the pre-war era into the post-war era.
Robert House makes a cameo appearance in the Fallout TV show during a pre-war scene in which the then RobCo Industries boss plots with Vault-Tec management and the heads of other companies to not only survive the inevitable nuclear apocalypse, but maybe even trigger it.
“Many of our lead characters are Vegas-bound,” Wagner said. “Las Vegas in the world of Fallout is Robert House’s town. Robert House will be involved in Season 2.”
Season 1 ends with a Power Armor-clad Overseer Hank stomping towards New Vegas, with The Ghoul and Lucy MacLean in hot pursuit. Wagner’s tease suggests newly knighted Brotherhood of Steel member Maximus will also end up in New Vegas. All roads, then, lead to a post-apocalyptic showdown on what’s left of The Strip.
The question is, what form will Robert House take in Season 2? Will the TV show follow New Vegas’ lead and have the character star as a 200-year-old consciousness kept alive by machines? Or will the showrunners come up with some other way to have Robert House knocking about Vegas during this point in the Fallout timeline? After all, the mystery of how New California Republic chief Moldaver survived for over 200 years remains unresolved.
As the showrunners have said before, they would have loved to have squeezed Fallout’s iconic Deathclaw into Season 1, but couldn’t manage it due to having to establish the world. But deathclaws are also confirmed for Season 2, and like so much of Fallout Season 1, they won’t be CGI.
“To be honest, the deathclaw is an element we were troubled by not finding the right space for it in season one, and we very deliberately wanted to box ourselves in,” Wagner admitted. “And sometimes, as writers, you do that. You set yourself a challenge and you just say, ‘Well, now we got to.
“So, that actually has helped us a lot because we’re already developing ways, iterating ways to actually get the deathclaw up on its feet. Make it the most cool and impactful thing and it actually has given us the runway so we’re not just delivering a script and saying, ‘Oh, God, there’s a deathclaw.’ It’s like, ‘We know there is a deathclaw, so get ready.; These things take a lot of iterating, a lot of time to do it and to do it right versus just having it be a CG squiggle running across the screen.”
I like taking side trips and just exploring something that was mentioned in passing and making a thing out of it. The final tease comes from Walton Goggins, who expertly plays Ghoul/Cooper. He suggested the Ghoul will once again get side-tracked in Season 2, as he did while dragging Lucy around the wasteland in Season 1.
“There are mysteries from Season 1, there are things that seem benign but may carry weight in Season 2, and things that are worth dedicating an episode to that seem outside of the overall trajectory of this experience. I like taking side trips and just exploring something that was mentioned in passing and making a thing out of it. And I know Graham and Geneva and Jonah [Nolan] are down for that too. So we’ll see what happens.”
Fans have plenty of theories about the Snake Oil Salesman’s mysterious serum, for example. To keep you going until Season 2, be sure to check out IGN’s wide-ranging, spoiler-filled interview with Bethesda Game Studios executive Todd Howard and executive producer and director Jonathan Nolan.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
