As Fallout Season 2’s release nears, there’s still a lot we don’t know about the returning show. What is certain, however, is that the Prime show is going to dial things up and keep things fresh with the introduction of new characters. As revealed over a year ago, part of that refreshment saw the casting of Macaulay Culkin as an unnamed “crazy genius-type character”, and of Kumail Nanjiani as an even more guarded character.
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For the former at least, pieces of evidence have begun to fall into place: we know he’s a member of the Legion, and we know he wears a Roman Legionnaire’s armour. Until now, that’s about the sum total of what has been confirmed. The actor himself has revealed in conversation with IGN that he did research of Fallout lore on YouTube, but in an interview with ComicBook’s Bryan Cairns, showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet offered more details, intriguingly name-dropping Caesar from the games:
“Macaulay is in the Legion. Mac had such an interesting read in how he wanted to play this character, which was as an intellectual, and envisioned him in the Legion. Sometimes, the characters you meet in the games in the Legion are quite intellectual and thoughtful. That’s what is so interesting and frightening about the Legion is the Caesar you meet in the games is quite a thoughtful person, even though he is doing all kinds of deeply immoral things. He is using the aesthetics of the Roman Empire to intimidate the Wasteland and to further promote his own power. I think those are characteristics of the character that Mac beautifully brought to the screen.”
That isn’t quite the overt confirmation that Culkin is playing Caesar himself, as has been widely theorized, but Robertson-Dworet’s comments will certainly feed the theories. It’s definitely worth noting the careful navigation of saying “the character Mac beautifully brought to the screen” rather than “the version of him Mac brought to screen”. Still, at the very least, it sounds like he’s playing a character who has replaced Caesar in spirit and function, and perhaps directly as the Legion’s leader as the trailer hinted. This also feels like the most detail we’ve learned about Culkin’s character since he was announced over a year ago in November 2024, beyond the first look at his Legionnaire costume and the broad description of “crazy genius”.
Geneva Robertson-Dworet Also Talks Kumail Nanjiani’s Newcomer
Despite the surprisingly charitable comments on Culkin’s character, the showrunner remains a little more tight-lipped over the new season’s other big-name newcomer, Kumail Nanjiani. We asked for details, nonetheless:
“I don’t want to give away too much, but he is a very heroic figure who arrives just as things are starting to get quite heated in the Brotherhood in the Southwest region. As you saw in the trailer, he didn’t get his invitation to the Civil War. He is there to try to stop the growing tension. The question is just will he achieve that or make them worse?”
The mystery continues. And as for those rumors that Aaron Paul might turn up? Don’t count on it. When the question of whether Robertson-Dworet had a conversation with the Breaking Bad star, the rumor dies pretty quickly (unless we’re being led on, of course):
“That’s very interesting. I did not. He visited the set and is absolutely a lovely guy. I had the honor of meeting him. Of course, he’s a veteran of Jonathan Nolan’s Westworld and an incredible actor. His character and performance in that show were amazing.”
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