Ahead of Fallout Season 2's journey to New Vegas, the cast of the Prime Video show has hinted at how the series will incorporate the game's multiple endings. Fallout is based on the hit video game franchise from Bethesda, with the series set in a new time period and location within the fictional post-apocalyptic world. That is, until the show revealed that Season 2 would take the action back to a familiar location: the iconic New Vegas.
Fallout: New Vegas, like most games in the franchise, offers players choices throughout its story, which in turn opens up alternate endings. The game famously features several different endings, with any number of the New Vegas factions emerging victorious. With Fallout Season 2 taking place 15 years after the events of New Vegas, one prevalent question going into the new season is what state the dystopian city will be in when the characters arrive, and whether the show will canonize any one particular ending from the game.
During an interview with The Spill, Fallout cast members Aaron Moten (Maximus), Ella Purnell (Lucy), and Walton Goggins (The Ghoul) were asked how the show might address this New Vegas mystery. Moten revealed that the series will take more of a revisionist history approach, with the past being "written in the wasteland by whoever writes it." According to Moten, the events of Fallout: New Vegas will seemingly be depicted from "different perspectives", with there being no clear indicator of "who won and who lost:"
Aaron Moten: "You know what's really interesting is our storyline, where we are in time is, it's a number of years after the events of [Fallout: New Vegas]. An interesting conversation Geneva [Robertson-Dworet] and I have been having is actually about how history is written in the wasteland by whoever writes it. And different perspectives will have a different perspective on who won and who lost. It's a really beautiful thing."
Moten's answer seems to suggest that Fallout Season 2 will refrain from making any single Fallout: New Vegas ending canon in the show, instead allowing the "winner" of the game to be a matter of perspective. This is a smart route for the show to take, as it allows for any of the Fallout: New Vegas story routes to be possible, without confirming any specific one as canon.
It also appears that Fallout Season 2 won't waste any time getting to the action in New Vegas, with Moten's comments suggesting that fans will learn about the state of the Nevada city "really early on."
Aaron Moten: "We see it really early on that [Lucy and the Ghoul] find out who believes themselves to be winning, and the Ghoul offering a different perspective, you know."
Goggins' Ghoul is also likely to be a key window into the history of New Vegas, with the character's previous life before the apocalypse as Cooper Howard offering flashbacks into the state of New Vegas before the game. Fallout Season 2's trailer confirms that fans will see Cooper in New Vegas before the bombs drop, providing even more insight into the city and its connection to the end of the world. The character's POV will also be key coming into Fallout Season 2's present timeline, as the Ghoul has the benefit of knowledge from his earlier visits to New Vegas, and his opinion could reflect any one of the numerous Fallout: New Vegas endings.
Fallout Season 2 features returning regulars Moten, Purnell, Goggins, Kyle MacLachlan, and Moises Arias, plus new stars Justin Theroux, Macaulay Culkin, and Kumail Nanjiani. The new season debuts on Prime Video starting December 17.
What Does New Vegas Look Like in Fallout Season 2 After the Ending of the Game?
With Fallout Season 2 seemingly dodging the conflicting endings of Fallout: New Vegas, the question remains what kind of state the city will be in when Lucy and the Ghoul arrive.
It has already been confirmed that certain Fallout: New Vegas characters, such as Mr. House and Caesar's Legion, will still be present in New Vegas when Season 2 picks up. However, what has happened to them since the events of the game remains a mystery that the series will have to solve. Fallout is already taking some big story swings with certain New Vegas factions, like the Kings, who seem to have become ghouls in the time since the game ended, suggesting there may be a twist on other fan-favorites from the game as well.
Other hints in trailers and set photos confirm the return of several iconic landmarks from Fallout: New Vegas, such as the Tops Casino and Dinky the T-Rex, meaning fans will still get to enjoy the familiarity of New Vegas, even if some aspects of it will have changed in the 15 years since the game.
