Twin Peaks Star Cast In Fallout Series

Do they even have coffee in the Wasteland?

By Michileen Martin | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

kyle maclachlan

In the popular Fallout game series, drinks are very important. Not only is just about every type of drink you can find in the games’ open world irradiated, but old forms of currency have been replaced by bottle caps from bottled beer, soda, and other drinks. So it’s perhaps fitting that it’s just been announced a guy known for playing FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper on Twin Peaks — known for talking about coffee like it was the true nectar of the gods — is joining the cast of Amazon Prime Video’s Fallout series. That’s right. Kyle MacLachlan is on his way to the wasteland.

The news surfaced earlier this week from Variety that the man who so perfectly embodied the infectiously pure-hearted hero of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks had been cast in Fallout. There isn’t any word yet on MacLachlan’s character, though considering the kinds of characters he’s played over the years, your guess is as good as ours. We could see him as a heroic wanderer, one of the inevitably corrupt mayors of the wasteland’s makeshift towns, or perhaps one of the tyrannical Overseers of the xenophobic underground Vault communities.

Kyle MacLachlan wasn’t the only addition announced to the Fallout cast. Variety also reported Xelia Mendes-Jones (Sans Comic) and Aaron Moten (Father Stu) had been recruited to the series. Just as it is in the case of MacLachlan, neither Mendes-Jones’ nor Moten’s characters have been revealed.

In spite of being in the dark about what characters the new cast members are playing, this is still wonderful news on at least two fronts. Not only is Kyle MacLachlan a wonderful get for the production, but until now the only cast announcements have been for the lead Walton Goggins (Justified) and Ella Purnell (Kick-Ass 2). With the flow of information about the show beginning to increase, we’re sure to get more updates in the near future.

Often seen as the maverick director’s muse, Kyle MacLachlan’s career has long been tethered to that of David Lynch. In 1984 — just over a decade before Timothée Chalamet was born — MacLachlan made his debut as Paul Atreides in Lynch’s adaptation of Dune. His next leading role proved to be another one of his signature parts, in Lynch’s 1986 thriller Blue Velvet.

kyle maclachlan
Kyle MacLachlan in Twin Peaks

But to many fans Kyle MacLachlan will first, last, and always be Agent Dale Cooper who came to the titular town of Twin Peaks in 1990 to find the killer of Laura Palmer. For months, before social media was a thing, the question of “Who killed Laura Palmer?” was the topic of conversation in households and around water coolers across the U.S. While the question was ultimately answered, the answer proved to be more complex than anyone had previously imagined. The show was unfortunately canceled after only two seasons and ended with a series of terrifying cliffhangers, but MacLachlan would go on to reprise the role of Agent Cooper both in the 1992 follow-up film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and Showtime’s 2017 revival series Twin Peaks: The Return.