Fallout TV show stars and creators on working with Todd Howard: "It means a lot to get his approval"

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Exclusive: Graham Wagner, Aaron Moten, and Walton Goggins talk working with Fallout franchise helmer Todd Howard

Fallout TV show
(Image credit: Prime Video)

Fallout TV show stars Walton Goggins and Aaron Moten, as well as writer Graham Wagner, had a great time working with Fallout video game lead and Bethesda boss Todd Howard.

"He entrusted this property, which is so personal to him and so personal to the people at Bethesda. He put it in Jonah's hands and let him run with it," Goggins tells GamesRadar+. "I just spent a lot of time with him at South by Southwest where we had this activation and he's so lovely. What a lovely man. You know, and I, the thing that I asked him about was, you know, inspiration for games and what is the collaboration like?"

Goggins plays Cooper Howard aka The Ghoul, a ruthless, gunslinging, cowboy version of the mutated race of posthuman beings in the video game franchise. The ruthless bounty hunter comes face-to-face with Maximus, a squire of the Brotherhood of Steel, played by Aaron Moten. The series, based on Howard and Bethesda's wildly popular video game franchise of the same name, itself based on the original Fallout games by lead dev Tim Cain of Interplay, takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of Los Angeles that has been gutted by nuclear war.

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"[Todd] came to set and it's something very late that he saw me filming and I remembered him just being so pleased and happy with what we had been doing. It's that thing where you would always hear, you're always asking, you're like, 'Are people liking what we're doing?' and everybody's like, 'Oh, they're liking it. Keep going,'" Moten tells GR+. "But I think that was a 'keep going.' He felt a real sense of pride and I was happy that he felt that with what we were doing. It means a lot to get his approval. Everyone's kind of waiting with bated breath and it's a big exhale when he seems happy and likes it. It's a good feeling."

Fallout

(Image credit: Prime Video)

The post-apocalyptic sci-fi-comedy was developed by Westworld co-creators Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, with Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Captain Marvel) and Graham Wagner (Portlandia) serving as head writers and executive producers. The cast includes Ella Purnell, Mike Doyle, Xelia Mendes-Jondes, Aaron Moten, Johnny Pemberton, Zach Cherry, Moises Arias, and Kyle MacLachlan.

"[Working with Todd] was great. I said in an interview that he was the most relaxed person I've ever worked with. And the other Bethesda executives are like, 'What?' Or utterly confused, but I've not seen the stressed-out version of Todd that they have," Wagner says. "But they obviously are putting out these mission-to-Mars-level projects every five years. Whereas, you know, I felt like he was on vacation whenever he hung out with us because he was like, oh, what are you guys up to? It was very relaxed, very low-key, very collaborative, and just sort of a neat guy to be around, you know?"

Fallout hits Prime Video on April 11. For more, check out the rest of our coverage:

Lauren Milici
Lauren Milici
Senior Entertainment Writer

Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ based in New York City. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.