The Wasteland is welcoming a new face. Ahead of filming for Fallout Season 3, which is due to kick off this summer, Amazon Prime Video has announced that Aaron Paul will be joining the cast in an undisclosed role.
Meanwhile, Annabel O’Hagan and Dave Register — who play Steph Harper and Chet, respectively — have been promoted to series regulars. This latest casting marks a reunion between the Breaking Bad star and executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, following their previous stint together on the final season of HBO’s Westworld series (coincidentally, a reboot film from Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp was earlier reported to be in the works), on which the pair served as showrunners.
Given that the live-action adaptation features plenty of original characters, it wouldn’t be surprising if Paul’s portrayal ends up as unfamiliar to fans of the franchise, whether friend or foe. While Season 2 brought the iconic setting of New Vegas to life, the forthcoming outing will seemingly take place in Colorado, a location that didn’t appear in any of the games, unlike California and New Vegas. A release date for Fallout Season 3 has yet to be set.
The project is hardly Paul’s first brush with video games, as he was last seen in last year’s Dispatch as Robert Robertson / Mecha Man, a retired superhero-turned-dispatcher who manages dysfunctional heroes. In 2014, the actor starred in the live-action film adaptation of Need For Speed, and before that, he was invited to a launch party for Fallout: New Vegas. Nolan also shared an anecdote about Paul’s enthusiasm for the series in 2024, telling IGN:
“Aaron Paul was at the premiere, a human being I love so much. And he was very polite. He was very enthusiastic about the show. There was sort of an unspoken kind of like, ‘What’s up, man?’ But we’ve been hearing from so many people, and it’s kind of fun to see the Fallout fans come out of the woodwork. People you’ve known a long time, and you realise, ‘Oh, you’ve been playing this whole time.” So it’s been a lot of fun.”
Taking place 200 years after a nuclear holocaust, Fallout follows sheltered vault dwellers who are forced to return to the violent and bizarre wasteland their ancestors left behind. It stars Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Kyle MacLachlan, Moisés Arias, Xelia Mendes-Jones, Walton Goggins, and Frances Turner, with the first two seasons ranking among the most-watched TV seasons on Amazon Prime Video.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Kevin Low
