By Iain McLean

Patrolling the Mojave again has game fans so excited that Amazon has decided to release its final two episodes of Season 2 early.

The second series takes place in New Vegas, the same environment and setting from the franchises most popular game, ‘Fallout: New Vegas’ which has Fallout fans glued to their screens come Wednesday night with reaction and theory videos being uploaded within hours of the episode airing each week.

When the casting for the series was announced gradually over 2022, the star power behind the show only continued to grow with many acting legends joining the cast.

The most notable of these were: Kyle MacLachlan (best known for playing Agent Dale Cooper in David Lynch’s ‘Twin Peaks’), Walton Goggins (best known for his roles as Boyd Crowder in ‘Justified’ and Sheriff Chris Mannix in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘The Hateful Eight’) and the lead of the series being played by Ella Purnell, who soared to stardom following her role in Paramount’s ‘Yellowjackets’ and voice acting in Netflix’s ‘Arcane’.

The casting only became more stacked when they announced Macauley Culkin, of ‘Home Alone’ fame, in an undisclosed role and Justin Theroux (best known for his role as Kevin Garvey in HBO’s ‘The Leftovers’, bringing Robert House to life.

Joining this star-studded cast was Aaron Moten, with Fallout being his breakout role.

Following the runaway success of the first season, released in 2024, some fans were split due to some minor story decisions but the finale of season one revealing the New Vegas skyline quickly brought everyone onboard.

The internet exploded with theories about what could lie ahead, could they see characters from the game? Would we see ‘Courier Six’, the games main protagonist?

This momentum only continued when set photos were released and showed practical fights between someone clad in power armour fighting a Deathclaw. One of the most feared creatures in the game series.

The most impressive part? The Deathclaw was not a man in a green suit holding the mold of the creature’s head but was instead almost fully practical. This was achieved similarly to how the T-Rex was created in Jurassic Park, using a mixture of large-scale puppetry mixed with “cutting edge” visual effects.

This has been a constant theme in the shows production with them trying to avoid as much CGI as possible, even opting to keep as much practicality as possible with the ‘Securitrons’, giant autonomous robots that patrol the New Vegas ‘strip’, and the practical ‘Mr Handy’ units, robots that were created to serve normal families and act as their personal butler in the games lore.

All of this combined together with the script writers choosing to respect what had already been built in game and choosing to avoid choosing or locking in any of the endings in the RPG games series, which would potentially alienate fans, has resulted in the well deserved 8.3 rating on IMDB and 95% ratings from both critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.

The success of the show and the New Vegas setting has Bethesda teeing up complete remasters of their most popular games. Their first console release ‘Fallout 3’ and Obsidian Entertainment’s ‘Fallout: New Vegas’, which is seen as the best game in the series.

You can watch the full first season and the first 7 episodes of the second season on Amazon Prime now.

So, what are you waiting for? Prepare your rad-away, stock up on your buffout and enter the Mojave Wasteland during the franchises most exciting time.

Amazon Prime’s ‘Fallout’ series to bring forward the release of final two episodes