‘Fallout’ Season 2: What We Know About Release Date, Cast, Plot

• Amazon’s “Fallout” ends on a cliffhanger that teases an iconic location from the games.
• Macaulay Culkin has joined the cast for season two.
• Here’s what to know about the future of “Fallout.”

“Fallout” brings the postapocalyptic world of the award-winning video games to life, and Amazon has renewed the show for a second season.

The show takes place 200 years after a nuclear war decimated the U.S. and revolves around Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell), who was raised in an underground bunker that protected her ancestors from radiation.

When her father, Hank MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan), is kidnapped by invaders from the outside world, Lucy leaves the safety of the shelter to try to save him.

In the last five years, Amazon has found success by adapting well-known properties into TV shows, including “The Boys,” “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Reacher,” “Good Omens,” and “Invincible.”

But “Fallout” marks the first time the company has adapted a video game into a series, and judging by the hugely positive critical reaction, the gamble has paid off. So it’s no surprise that Amazon announced in April that the show is returning for season two.

Here’s what to know about “Fallout” season two.

It seems likely ‘Fallout’ season 2 will visit a classic location from a beloved game

The end of season one revealed that Hank is actually employed by Vault-Tec, the company that built all the Vaults, and he’s still working to ensure that the company is successful in the post-apocalypse. This is a bitter pill to swallow for Lucy now that she’s seen how the world was devastated by the war.

Hank leaves Lucy and Maximus (Aaron Moten) by flying away in a damaged set of power armor. But in the closing moments of the season, audiences see him stomping through the desert toward an iconic location from the games: New Vegas.

The 2010 game, “Fallout: New Vegas,” takes place in and around the city, which has been rebuilt following the nuclear war. It’s one of the most beloved games in the franchise, and fans are clearly excited about the potential of seeing it in live action.

When speaking to Business Insider ahead of “Fallout” season one, showrunner Graham Wagner said that there’s a lot the makers didn’t do in the series (like introducing a deathclaw) in the hopes that they got a second season.

“We took the philosophy of— If you do everything right out of the gates, you’re going to do it all but less well, and it’ll just be a confusing barrage of noise. So we bet on ourselves,” he said.

“We bet on Amazon, and the show, in the hopes of creating a show that irrefutably gets a second season. We’re in an uncertain time with television. We never know. It is a very expensive show. It’s a big ask,” Wagner added.

“So we’re hoping that if fans coalesce around this thing, it becomes undeniable. We have fingers crossed. We have so much more we hope to do,” he said.

Amazon has only just renewed ‘Fallout’ for season 2, so it might not be released for a long time

“Fallout” season one arrived on April 10, and then nine days later, Amazon confirmed that the show will return for season two. So it’s fair to say that it’ll likely be quite a while before fans get to see more from the wasteland.

Filming for season one appears to have started in July 2022, an archived listing on the industry job site, Stunt Access.com, suggests. Then, in March 2023, lead actor Walton Goggins told fans on Instagram that he had wrapped filming. So the whole show took just under two years to make, from start to release.

If Amazon gets the cameras rolling this year, it’s possible “Fallout” season two might arrive on the streamer in early 2026. But that’s just a prediction since the streamer hasn’t confirmed a specific release date yet.

Macaulay Culkin will join Aaron Moten, Walton Goggins, and Ella Purnell in ‘Fallout’ season 2

In November, Deadline reported citing unnamed sources that “Home Alone” and “American Horror Story” actor Macaulay Culkin is joining the cast as a “crazy genius-type character.”

“Fallout” fans will know that that description could fit plenty of characters in the games.

Many online were quick to comment that it would be funny if he played a character living alone in one of the vaults, in a nod to “Home Alone.”

Others speculated that he will play Arcade Gannon, a scientist from the “New Vegas” game who experiments with medicine.

Amazon and Culkin’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

In April, Amazon announced the second season of the series with a poster of Maximus, The Ghoul (Walton Goggins), and Lucy, so it seems very likely that all three actors will return to reprise their roles when the show eventually returns.

Fans can also expect to see MacLachlan return as Hank considering the tease that the former Overseer of Vault 33 is heading to New Vegas.

In fact, it’s probable that all the cast will return for season two because there are a number of plot threads that are left open for future stories.

How will Moldaver’s Cold Fusion device change the Wasteland? Will Norm (Moisés Arias) escape Vault 31? Will Thaddeus (Johnny Pemberton) turn into a ghoul?

Hopefully, the next batch of episodes will answer these questions and more.