Walton Goggins Reveals Cooper Howard’s Journey in ‘Fallout: Season 2’

Lucy MacLean, The Ghoul, Maximus, and The Ghoul’s dog companion, Dogmeat, headed to New Vegas

I gotta say, Fallout Season 2 has been absolutely fantastic. I think the first two episodes have been some of the best in the series yet, and I’m excited to see where the writers take us from here.

Based on the role-playing video game franchise created by Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, the new season of Fallout follows Lucy, played by actress Ella Purnell, as she continues her quest to find her father, while The Ghoul, portrayed by actor Walter Goggins, searches for his missing family. The season introduces iconic game elements like Deathclaws and a civil war-torn version of Caesar’s Legion.

Unlike the first season’s “binge” release, Season 2 episodes are being released one at a time every Wednesday at 12 a.m. PT / 3 a.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video.

This season promises an emotional backstory that builds with Goggins’ character and delves deeper into Cooper Howard’s past, exploring the relationships and events that shaped him before he became The Ghoul. The Academy Award winner for his work on the short film “The Accountant” explained in a recent interview with GameRadar that the storyline is a heartbreaking one.

“We get to spend more time with Cooper this season, and this is a man who has had the rug pulled out from underneath him,” Goggins said. “He realizes just how little control he has over anything in his life, and it broke my heart. Some of these things we were filming… God, in episode five, there was this thing that he goes through where he’s so despondent by his lack of control, and it coincided with how I felt in my own life. It was a very personal journey for me.”

As Lucy and The Ghoul continue to traverse the Wasteland, and you learn more and more about Cooper Howard’s past, you feel a sense of the human that he once was.

“Whenever you cut from [Cooper Howard] to the Ghoul, without any words, you understand a little bit more, and you see him,” he continues. “And the Ghoul is so resistant to being vulnerable, which equates to being human in any way, because of what it is that he’s trying to do. Understanding how resistant he is to that, and ultimately, he gives over to it, even if it’s incrementally for him, it means everything. It was just so rich to play both sides of this person and both iterations of this person. I just can’t wait for people to see it and to see where it ultimately goes.”

The combination of emotional storytelling and survival in a post-apocalyptic world is just something you don’t often see in end-of-the-world-type wasteland adventures, especially in a theatrical experience. Goggins tends to favor the long-form series TV format for just that reason because you’re able to explore these emotions, which can lead to a more satisfying story.

“There’s a moment this season in this long-form television format that you just couldn’t have gotten to in two hours; it would have felt forced. But, you wait this many hours and then, all of a sudden, this happens organically. And then, what happens because of this experience? It feels like this is exactly where we’re supposed to be and I don’t know where it goes from here. But we’re able to explore things and [in] long-format versions of serialized storytelling in television that I just have never been given the opportunity to do in film. I mean, I’ve had some great roles and some really cool movies, but I just find this version of collaboration and storytelling something that speaks to me.”

Season 2 also continues to unravel the true, sinister motives of Hank MacLean and his ruthless Vault-Tec loyalty, revealing him as a dedicated, amoral operative working with Mr. House in New Vegas to perfect mind-control technology, experimenting without remorse and seeking promotion by completing a pre-war project to control ideology. He is a far cry from the caring father seen in Season 1, making him a central, chilling villain tied to the fate of the Wasteland.

Other returning stars include Aaron Moten (Maximus) and Moisés Arias (Norm), alongside new additions like Justin Theroux as Mr. House, Macaulay Culkin, and Kumail Nanjiani.

Amazon has already greenlit Season 3, which is currently in the writing phase as of late 2025. I’ll keep you updated with more details as they become available.