A year and a half after Fallout first hit Amazon Prime Video, the show is coming back for its second season. The adaptation of the blockbuster video game franchise has proven to be a smash hit in its own right, making season 2 one of the most anticipated shows of 2025.
If you are planning to keep up with Fallout through the holidays, here is everything you need to know heading into the season 2 premiere:
When does Fallout season 2, episode 1 come out?
After dropping all eight episodes of season 1 at once, Prime Video is pivoting to weekly releases for season 2. And despite routinely leaning on three-episode premieres for The Boys, Gen V, Invincible and their other blockbuster shows, Prime Video is going with a one-episode premiere for Fallout season 2.
Season 2, episode 1 will drop on Tuesday, December 16 at 9 p.m. ET. Prime Video shifted the release date up at the last second, as it was supposed to premiere Wednesday before the streaming giant changed course on Monday.
(Warning: Spoilers for Fallout Season 1 ahead.)
Who will show up in Fallout season 2, episode 1?
Most of the main cast is coming back for Fallout season 2, plus a few new faces. Keeping in mind that any number of these characters could die sooner rather than later, here is the main cast for the start of season 2:
- Walton Goggins as The Ghoul / Cooper Howard
- Ella Purnell as Lucy MacLean
- Aaron Moten as Maximus
- Kyle MacLachlan as Hank MacLean
- Moisés Arias as Norm MacLean
- Xelia Mendes-Jones as Dane
- Justin Theroux as Robert Edwin House
- Frances Turner as Barb Howard
- Leslie Uggams as Betty Pearson
- Zach Cherry as Woody Thomas
- Johnny Pemberton as Thaddeus
- Michael Cristofer as Elder Cleric Quintus
Macaulay Culkin and Kumail Nanjiani are confirmed to be joining the cast, as well, but their roles are still unknown.
Where did Fallout season 1 leave off?
Season 1 followed Lucy as she left Vault 33 to search for her kidnapped father in a nuclear wasteland. Along the way, she met Maximus, a squire in the Brotherhood of Steel who was posing as a knight in a weaponized suit of armor. Thaddeus wound up squiring for Maximus until he uncovered his lie, but he turned into a radiation-riddled ghoul before he could. Lucy and Maximus both crossed paths with The Ghoul, a deformed and monstrous bounty hunter who witnessed the start of the global nuclear war more than 200 years earlier.
By the end of the season, we learned that Lucy’s father, Hank, was a Vault-Tec executive who helped start the apocalyptic war in the first place. The Ghoul’s wife, Barb, was also a Vault-Tec executive, who he now believes is alive with their daughter, Janey. Lucy turned on her father and helped his kidnapper, Moldaver, activate a fusion reactor to power Los Angeles before she died. Hank escaped and made his way to New Vegas, while the Brotherhood credited Maximus for Moldaver’s death and heralded him as a hero.
At the same time, Lucy’s brother, Norm, made some similar discoveries back at Vault 33. He eventually snuck over to Vault 31, where Vault-Tec was storing even more cryogenically frozen executives. Norm got trapped in Vault 31 by Bud, another Vault Tec exec whose brain was housed by a little robot on wheels.
What should we expect in Fallout season 2?
Like season 1, season 2 will probably have a largely original main plot rather than directing porting one over from the games. But based on the end of season 1, season 2 will likely lean heavily on adapting 2010’s Fallout: New Vegas.
The bustling, post-apocalyptic version of Las Vegas will be a major setting for season 2, which will center around Lucy and The Ghoul tracking down her father. Hank is seemingly hiding out in New Vegas with other Vault-Tec execs, all while the Brotherhood of Steel starts to stage a rebellion.
Behind the camera, Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet are back as showrunners while Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan – brother of Christopher Nolan – are once again executive producing. As a result, expect the tone and structure of season 2 to match season 1 pretty closely.
Here is the official trailer for Fallout season 2:
