There’s a very familiar face coming to Amazon Prime Video’s adaptation of the video game series Fallout. But if the rumor is true, we’ll have trouble recognizing Walter Goggins under heavy makeup. Deadline is reporting that Goggins has been cast in the live-action Fallout series, and “he is believed to be playing Ghoul.”
The Fallout video games are a hit franchise that was created by Bethesda Softworks in 1997. The games take place in a uniquely envisioned postapocalypse that mixes a 1940s vision of the future with a grim wasteland created by a nuclear war in the year 2077. In the games, ghouls are people who have been horribly mutated due to overexposure to radiation. They could pass for zombies, but they aren’t actually members of the undead. It’s unclear if Goggins’ character will have a proper name.
Goggins has a long history of playing bad guys who have interesting or compelling personalities. He memorably played Shane Vendrell for seven seasons on FX’s The Shield before landing another leading role as Boyd Crowder on Justified, also on FX. More recently, Goggins had a starring role on HBO’s Vice Principals, and he currently recurs on The Righteous Gemstones.
To bring Bethesda Softworks games into live-action, Prime Video has recruited Westworld showrunners and co-creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy to executive produce the series through their Kilter Films production house. Nolan will direct the first episode of the series.
Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner have been signed to serve as showrunners and executive producers of Fallout. They will be joined by executive producer Athena Wickham from Kilter Films, Todd Howard from Bethesda Game Studios, and James Altman from Bethesda Softworks.
Fallout will begin filming later this year. A premiere date on Amazon Prime Video has not yet been announced.