Fallout: Kyle MacLachlan Reveals How '50s Aesthetic Influenced His Role

Amazon's Fallout TV show is finally dropping on Prime Video next week, and gaming fans are eager to see how the adaptation unfolds. The show features an exciting line-up of actors, including Ella Purnell (Yellowjackets), Aaron Moten (Disjointed), Walton Goggins (Justified), Kyle MacLachlan (Dune), and more. The Fallout show is not a retelling of any specific game in the series, but rather a continuation of the story that the showrunners perceive as a "Fallout 5." In the show, MacLachlan plays a Vault Dweller named Hank and recently told ComicBook.com how the 1950s aesthetic influenced his role. 

"Well, you know, there's a certain quality and tone that we were after," MacLachlan explained. "You could sort of say in general terms, that fifties sensibility, that post-war, that a positive can-do [attitude]. 'We can do anything. Look, we're on the upswing.' All those kinds of attitudes and that tone infected Hank, of course, and that's a big part of who his character is."

"So the tone of it really does influence the character," he added. "I mean, it's also who the character is and the values that he has going forward. But it was supported by what was around ... He just was very proud of the way that Vault was performing and the way he looked, and that people took pride in their work. You know, they were there doing good things and good deeds. I guess that's the impact it had, I think." 

What Is Fallout About?

While the show's main characters – Lucy (Purnell), Maximus (Moten), and Cooper Howard (Goggins) – are entirely new, they fit certain archetypes established in the games. Lucy is a Vault Dweller, and the start of the series centers around her leaving her Vault for the very first time and heading to Los Angeles. Maximus is a squire of the Brotherhood of Steel, while Cooper is a bounty-hunting Ghoul. All three get a significant amount of screen time in today's trailer, and it should give fans a better idea of the overall narrative. 

"It's an uncertain time in television. So the art form of season finales has become: provide enough closure, but leave the door open for more," writer Graham Wagner told Total Film. "But we feel we've barely scratched the surface of the Fallout universe. We literally have documents and documents of stuff that we're, in success, eager to dig into. Our fingers are crossed that we're going to get the opportunity to do all that stuff." 

Fallout premieres on Amazon Prime Video on April 11th.