Fallout TV Series Casts Justified Star In Lead Role
What a perfect choice!
This article is more than 2 years old
We are finally starting to get some details about the upcoming Fallout TV series, and the first cast announcement has been made. Justified star Walton Goggins has been cast in the Amazon Studios adaptation of the hit Bethesda video game series in an undisclosed role. As we recently reported, it is heavily expected that the main cast will include a “Ghoul” (in the game’s parlance) and the solid money says that Goggins is going to be playing that character. While it may be unfair to the acclaimed character actor to just assume that he is going to be playing a mutated post-human of dubious morals, we are going to go ahead and do so. Hopefully there will be some confirmation of this soon, but given Goggins’ reputation for playing unsavory characters, it just feels right.
Walton Goggins is the first actor confirmed to appear in the Amazon series, and it has been announced that Jonathan Nolan will direct it. The acclaimed co-screenwriter of The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar and The Prestige, Nolan is also the co-creator of HBO’s Westworld series. While he often works with his brother, director Christopher Nolan, it does not appear as though the latter will have involvement in this particular project. But given both Nolan brothers’ inclinations to story structure, it can be assumed that the Fallout series will involve complex inter-weavings of timelines and characters that do not turn out to be what they initially present themselves as. Goggins is an ideal actor for that, given his track record for playing unpleasant yet strangely sympathetic characters in movies by Quentin Tarantino and many television series including Justified and Sons of Anarchy.
And again, not to insult Walton Goggins, but a Ghoul feels appropriate for him. The Fallout series of games (which have been in steady production since 1997) take place in an alternate history world, in which 1950s technology exists beside science fiction elements like robots and laser guns. Set in a dystopian United States, Ghouls are humans infected by radiation and suffering from mutations, including a distorted, feral appearance, extreme longevity and a hatred of being compared to zombies. Since the Fallout series of games does not exactly have heroes so much as competing factions and an overall vibe of feral hostility in the remnants of a crumbled society, it will be interesting to see what plotline Jonathan Nolan and show-runners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner come up with.
Post-apocalyptic television shows have seen their popularity explode in recent years. Station Eleven, Y: The Last Man and Sweet Tooth all premiered in just 2021, and there appears to be no slowing of the genre. The upcoming The Last of Us show is already expected to be one of the single biggest television productions ever. While Walton Goggins has mostly appeared in gritty genre fare like Justified and comedies like Vice Principals and The Righteous Gemstones, it is unsurprising that one of the more compelling character actors of his generation would eventually be cast in one. It will remain to be seen exactly how Jonathan Nolan, Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner harness Goggins’ southern-fried accent and odd charisma into a retro-futuristic American wasteland, but that is a thing we are excited to see.
