Walton Goggins Is A Ghoul In Amazon’s ‘Fallout’ Show Preview Footage, Which Rules

As soon as Walton Goggins was cast in Amazon’s Fallout series, everyone sort of went “well, that’s pretty perfect.” No matter the role, Goggins’ look and humor from shows like Justified, Vice Principals and Righteous Gemstones felt like a great fit for the Fallout universe.

Now, at Gamescom, attendees were shown a private preview for the series, out some time in 2024 (pre-strike, at least), and word has it that Walton Goggins is apparently playing a Ghoul, the radiation-warped citizens of the Wasteland that yes, can still talk, as the mindless “feral” ones are who we usually are actually shooting. Some speculate that he may even be playing John Hancock, a companion from Fallout 4. I guess this Goggins-ghoul info may not be new, but it’s the first I’ve heard of it. Sadly we cannot see the footage that was shown yet, but teasers may be coming soon.

It’s unclear how exactly the show will follow the games, as it seems unlikely to be an exact adaption of one of them, and the series is reportedly set in LA, where the games do not take place. The trailer also showed off the Brotherhood of Steel and their Vertibirds. We only really have the official, generic synopsis to go on:

“The world of Fallout is one where the future envisioned by Americans in the late 1940s explodes upon itself through a nuclear war in 2077. The magic of the Fallout world is the harshness of the wasteland set against the previous generation’s utopian idea of a better world through nuclear energy.”

Yes that is…the very basic plot of Fallout in general, but it’s all we got. The show’s lead is Ella Purnell, who broke out after her role in Yellowjackets. The show also has Twin Peaks’ Kyle MacLachlan on board, who seems like another good fit alongside Goggins.

The show is yet another giant risk for Amazon, however, the latest in a string of very, very big budget offerings that will have to earn their keep. We don’t know the exact budget of the Fallout series here, but it cannot be cheap. Amazon is contending with sprawling budgets for series like Rings of Power and Citadel, and I do wonder how much it’s costing to bring the Wasteland to life.

The timing is a little weird, because Bethesda’s big new game is not a new Fallout entry, but instead the spacebound Starfield. Then their next game is Elder Scrolls 6. So if there even is a new mainline Fallout game, we might not see it for quite literally, possibly a decade or more, given the timing of these projects. Fallout 76 continues to exist as a live service, and no doubt more content will keep getting added to that.

Let’s see that Goggins footage, Amazon. Give it.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.