Guide to ‘Fallout’ Season 2 Cast & New Characters

Fallout made its “explosive” jump from the gaming world to TV (See what we did there?) in April 2024, bringing Bethesda’s post-nuclear America to the small screen for the first time.

Fallout Season 1 quickly became Amazon Prime Video’s second most-streamed title in platform history, trailing only The Lord of the Rings prequel series The Rings of Power. It introduced us to both the nuclear war-torn wasteland surrounding Los Angeles and a strong cast of some instantly beloved characters.

Here’s your guide to all of the new and returning cast and characters in Fallout Season 2, which premieres on Dec. 17, to prep you before you hit the Wastes for their next radioactive adventure, this time in New Vegas.

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Main ‘Fallout’ Season 2 Cast & Characters

Here’s your complete look at the new and returning cast and characters in Fallout Season 2.

Ella Purnell as Lucy MacLean

Known for: Yellowjackets, Arcane, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Every Fallout video game starts with the player character, a “Vault Dweller” who has lived their entire lives in an elaborate, underground Vault-Tech nuclear fallout bunker, finding a reason to finally emerge to the war-torn surface, and that’s exactly where we meet Lucy, the main character of Fallout.

Lucy grew up in Vault 33, where her family took shelter when a nuclear war between the United States and China devastated the world, reducing it to a barren wasteland populated by grizzled survivors and mutated monsters. When the Vault is invaded by surface raiders pretending to be the residents of neighboring Vault 32, Lucy’s father, Hank MacLean, the Vault’s overseer, is taken prisoner by the group and their menacing leader, Lee Moldaver.

Her naive worldview now partially shattered, Lucy heads to the surface to track down the gang and save her father. There, the rest of that naive worldview crumbles as she encounters the harsh reality of life in the Waste. She comes into conflict with survivors and members of the various warring factions that dominate parts of the Waste, including bandits, mutants and the Brotherhood of Steel, a paramilitary group bent on curtailing and controlling humanity’s irresponsible use of technology, which they blame for the apocalypse.

Lucy eventually forms alliances with Maximus, an AWOL squire from the Brotherhood of Steel, and The Ghoul, a legendary mutated bounty hunter, and locates her father and the raiders, only to discover the horrible truth: Her dad is actually the villain of the story so far, having had a hand in helping Vault-Tec essentially engineer the nuclear apocalypse to ensure their bottom line remained padded and they could conduct inhumane experiments on the residents of the Vaults. She also learns that her mother is still alive and lives as a feral ghoul.

In the end, Lucy and the Ghoul join forces to chase down Hank, who escaped by stealing a suit of Brotherhood power armor.

Walton Goggins as The Ghoul/Cooper Howard

Known for: Predators, The Hateful Eight, Django Unchained

The Ghoul, as he is formally known to the denizens of the Waste, is one of Fallout‘s most complex characters and was a breakout hit with fans. The Ghoul was originally Cooper Howard, a former U.S. Marine-turned-semi-successful Hollywood actor and Vault-Tec spokesperson.

The Ghoul/Cooper storyline is used to bridge the gap between the two main time periods that the show takes place in: pre-apocalyptic 2077, where Howard lives a semi-luxurious family life and begins to uncover the sinister conspiracy that Vault-Tec is cooking up, which eventually results in the destruction of global society. In one of the most riveting scenes of the early episodes in Season 1, we watch as Cooper and his daughter attend a birthday party, where he is making a celebrity appearance, as the first bombs drop on Los Angeles and he attempts to outrun the blast on horseback. He survived but was mutated into The Ghoul.

In 2296, he is unearthed in a casket by a group of thugs, whom he promptly murders and sets about hunting down Hank and Moldaver. He crosses paths with Lucy and Maximus at various times and takes Lucy captive for a stretch. The pair unexpectedly bond during this time, and by the end of the season, they’ve formed a tight alliance dedicated to hunting down and taking vengeance on corrupt former Vault-Tec employees.

Aaron Moten as Maximus

Known for: Emancipation, Disjointed

Maximus is a Squire in the Brotherhood of Steel, tasked with accompanying and assisting a Brotherhood Knight on missions, basically acting as his golf caddy, as he works towards his own knighthood. He was rescued by the Brotherhood after surviving the nuclear bombing of his hometown, Shady Sands, which, as it turns out, Lucy’s dad was responsible for.

Maximus is adopted by the Brotherhood, which gives him a de facto family structure and identity, despite it being a harsh life. When he is promoted to Squire, he becomes disillusioned with his life and particularly with the ethically questionable and often brutal methods he witnesses the Brotherhood’s operatives put to use. After his Knight is wounded by a mutant bear while on a mission to find a fugitive scientist, Siggi Wilzig, Maximus leaves him for dead, dons his armor, and begins posing as a full Knight, though not as convincingly as he might like.

Lucy and Maximus meet and become close allies. After Maximus tries to lead the Brotherhood off Lucy’s trail by giving them a fake relic, he’s forced to help them assault the raiders’ stronghold. Maximus helps Lucy rescue her father during the battle before Hank betrays the group and steals power armor to make his escape. In the end, he is designated a true Knight by the Brotherhood but still grapples with his loyalties and ideology.

Moises Arias as Norm MacLean

Known for: Ender’s Game

Norm is Hank’s younger son and Lucy’s little brother. Though he was also raised within Vault 33 from birth, he’s a bit of an outlier and misfit in that he doesn’t easily buy into the narrative about Vault-Tec’s benevolence and the safety of the Vault that’s being sold to his co-Vault Dwellers. He is the first to recognize the threat posed by the “Vault 32 Dwellers,” and after the raid that sets Lucy on her mission, strange things begin happening around the Vault that cause him to grow even more skeptical and suspicious.

Eventually, Norm ventures out to investigate Vault 31, where the Overseers are supposedly all from, only to find out that it’s filled with cryogenically frozen Vault-Tec executives, and that Vaults 32 and 33 were actually part of an elaborate social experiment controlled by Vault-Tec’s elite.

At the end of Season 1, Norm is the only one who knows the truth.

Kyle MacLachlan as Hank MacLean

Known for: Twin Peaks, Dune

Hank MacLean is Lucy and Norm’s father and the Overseer of Vault 33 at the beginning of Season 1. Hank is abducted by the raiders who invade the Vault early on, and Lucy’s primary mission throughout the rest of the season is to find and rescue him.

Hank is mostly MIA from his capture right up until the last few minutes of the season, but his character is explored in more depth during flashbacks into The Ghoul/Cooper Howard’s past, where it’s revealed that he is actually a Vault-Tec big wig who had been cryogenically frozen until after the nuclear apocalypse along with numerous other company executives to one day continue their work.

As a member of Vault-Tec’s inner circle, Hank had a direct hand in many of the story’s most pivotal events, including the outbreak of the nuclear war that destroyed society and forced people into the Vaults and the nuclear bombing of Shady Sands, Maximus’ hometown, which he ordered when Lucy and Norm’s mom fled there with the children.

At the end of the season, this second life is revealed and Hank, now the series’ primary antagonist, flees towards New Vegas in a stolen suit of power armor with Lucy and The Ghoul in pursuit.

Xelia Mendes-Jones as Dane

Known for: Havoc, The Wheel of Time

Dane is another Aspirant in the Brotherhood of Steel and a close friend of Maximus. Dane is more hopeful in and dedicated to the Brotherhood’s mission than Maximus. Dane was supposed to become the Squire to the Knight that Maximus ends up serving and leaving for dead, Titus, but is injured, leaving Maximus to take the job.

Others in the Brotherhood accuse Maximus of causing the injury, but it’s revealed later on in the season that it was actually self-inflicted by Dane as they sought to avoid having to go into the Waste. Dane is eventually reassigned as a Scribe within the Brotherhood as punishment.

Other Returning Cast for ‘Fallout’ Season 2

Here’s a few other characters that will return for Season 2 of Fallout.

• Leslie Uggams as Betty Pearson, the new overseer of Vault 32
• Johnny Pemberton as Thaddeus, a Brotherhood squire who, through a series of unfortunate events in Season 1, is in the early stages of ghoul-hood.
• Jon Daly as Snake Oil Salesman, the quirky purveyor of questionable goods in the Waste who turns Thaddeus into a ghoul.
• Frances Turner as Barb Howard, Cooper Howard’s wife in 2077.
• Teagan Meredith as Janey Howard, Cooper Howard’s daughter in 2077.
• Michael Cristofer as Elder Cleric Quintus, the leader of Maximus’s Brotherhood chapter.

New Cast for ‘Fallout’ Season 2

Fallout Season 2 welcomes some seriously famous new faces to the cast. Here’s a look at some of the new cast and characters for the second season.

Macaulay Culkin in an Undisclosed Role

Known for: Home Alone, Richie Rich

One of the biggest names joining the cast of Fallout Season 2 is Macaulay Culkin, of Home Alone fame. Culkin’s role isn’t completely clear yet, but he appears to have been cast to play a “mad scientist” in a recurring role, possibly as a member of the brutal Caesar’s Legion, often known simply as “the Legion,” one of the Fallout universe’s many factions. The Legion is a Roman Empire-themed slaver group led in the games by Edward “Caesar” Sallow, though it hasn’t been confirmed if this is the exact role Culkin will play.

Kumail Nanjiani in an Undisclosed Role

Known for: Portlandia, Silicon Valley, Eternals

Kumail Nanjiani is expected to step into a new role within the Brotherhood of Steel as a high-ranking Knight or other official within the faction. He’s expected to be a heroic character who serves as a source of reason within the Brotherhood, but details on the role are sparse.

Justin Theroux as Mr. House

Known for: Mulholland Drive, Beetlejuice 2

Dr. Robert House, the CEO of robotics company RobCo Industries, made a cameo in Season 1, but he’ll be back as the ruler of New Vegas. He’s dedicated to preserving biological life through advanced robotics. He’ll be a primary villain in the second season.

Watch ‘Fallout’ on DIRECTV

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