Walton Goggins Joins Amazon’s ‘Fallout’ Series

Walton Goggins in 2018's Tomb Raider

Famed actor Walton Goggins is the first acting name to officially board Amazon and Bethesda’s Fallout series.

 

The news arrived via Variety, who are claiming their sources say “he will play a character based on the ghouls from the games.” Ghouls are humans who were horribly disfigured due to exposure to radiation after the Great War, but a side effect was a rare and strong immunity to both radiation and nuclear fallout. It’s certainly an interesting but welcome choice, as ghouls are an important part of the games’ lore. Just don’t expect to see Goggins without extensive makeup work covering his face.

 

Goggins is a highly versatile actor that has been killing it for years pretty much everywhere. He received an Emmy nomination for playing the character Boyd Crowder in the series Justified. He also starred in the FX series The Shield as Detective Shane Vendrell, a role that opened many doors for him. He currently appears in the HBO comedy series The Righteous Gemstones after previously starring in the comedy series Vice Principals. On the film side of the business, he is known for his sizeable part in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, as well as a smaller one in Django Unchained. Another big win was working with Steven Spielberg on Lincoln, plus he played the main villain in 2018’s Tomb Raider reboot, so he already has some previous game-related experience.

 

Much like the games from which it draws inspiration, the Fallout series will explore a world “where the future envisioned by Americans in the late 1940s explodes upon itself through a nuclear war in 2077.” The plot of the show could go in many different directions, and the same goes for the tone, so it’ll be interesting to see which elements from the games are included in this new iteration of the famous universe.

 

Jonathan Nolan is executive producing the show, as well as directing the pilot episode, alongside Lisa Joy and Athena Wickham for Kilter Films, Fallout gaming boss Todd Howard for Bethesda Game Studios, and James Altman for Bethesda Softworks.