As the love for comic book adaptations wanes, our desire for video-game adaptations rises. Ever since television series such as The Witcher, Arcane, Twisted Metal, and The Last of Us showed how lucrative this can be, studios have been jumping on the bandwagon, and Amazon Prime Video’s Fallout is next.
The first Fallout video game was released in 1997 and went on to become a huge success in the gaming world, spawning six more games, with the last being Fallout 76 in 2018. The television series doesn’t follow any one storyline but amalgamates many of the elements from the games. We follow the story of Vault Dweller as she leaves the safety of the vaults, where a group of people have lived since the nuclear wars destroyed everything 200 years ago, to save her community. During her mission, she comes across a variety of challenges, discovering that the outside world is much more dangerous than she could have ever anticipated.
The series features a strong cast, with the lead character of Vault Dweller played by English actor Ella Purnell, the character of Maximus played by American actor Aaron Moten, and Cooper Howard, a.k.a. The Ghoul, played by Walton Goggins. Maximus is a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, a post-war technology-focused paramilitary order whose mission is to discover and recover old-world technology that could potentially lead to further destruction and regulate its use. Alongside Maximus is another interesting character, Thaddeus, a bully within the group who tormented and harassed Maximus growing up.
Thaddeus is played by American actor and comedian Johnny Pemberton. Don’t let his baby face fool you; Pemberton is 42 years old! You may have seen him in films like 21 Jump Street and its follow-up, 22 Jump Street, as Delroy. His most recent film was Daniel Radcliffe’s Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. His presence has been felt more in television, though, where he has guest starred in many of the biggest shows on TV, including Community, New Girl, and Law & Order: SVU. He’s also had recurring roles on shows like Superstore and You’re The Worst as well. Additionally, he was the titular character in the short-lived series Son of Zorn, a live-action/animation hybrid starring Cheryl Hines and the voice of Jason Sudeikis.
Fallout looks to mix adventure and action with elements of comedy, and given that all we see of Thaddeus in the trailer is him being pulled away screaming, we can see how Pemberton might be a good fit!
(featured image: Prime Video)
