As Fallout season 2 expands the TV show’s cast, I’ve been thinking about the best Fallout NPCs who deserve some attention in Amazon Prime Video’s adaptation. Across all the best Fallout games made by Interplay, Bethesda, and Obsidian, the side characters and side-quests are often more fascinating, emotional, and downright entertaining than your central plotline.
The intertwined destinies of Lucy, Maximus, and The Ghoul offer plenty of excitement, but it’s the extraordinary subplots, one-off villains, and wacky wastelanders who’ve really made the series so far. Luckily – for us, at least – Vault-Tec offers a deep, deep well of guns-for-hire, artificial intelligence, bizarre mutants, heartfelt humans, and plenty more for extra wildcards amid the radioactive hellscape that is the US in the 2200s.
The 10 best Fallout NPCs that we want to see on our small screens
10. Fisto (Fallout: New Vegas)
The Fully Integrated Security Technetronic Officer makes an ideal next step after the TV show introduced us to Snip Snip, the rogue Mister Handy. Fisto is a Protectron model that can be tailored to specific tasks if the right disk is inserted. He serves, ahem, the intimate needs of his custodians in Fallout: New Vegas, but he needn’t be limited to such things.
After Snip Snip, near enough anything else would probably be a relief for Lucy, Maximus and The Ghoul in season 2. Honestly, we love most of the robotic friends that you can meet in the Fallout games, but Fisto holds an extra special place in our hearts (he is also pretty funny, too).
9. Moira Brown (Fallout 3)
Lucy and Moira have a lot in common, considering they’re both decidedly optimistic Wastelanders whose perspective is greatly informed by the specific community they grew up in. For Moira, that’s Megaton, a town of rare vibrancy in Fallout 3, with many residents openly thriving and offering their services in different capacities.
She’s the author of the Wasteland Survival Guide, something that could easily figure into Amazon’s show somehow, as well as a seller of a small but mighty selection of weapons. Of course, Megaton is famous for the bomb at its core, the detonation of which makes for arguably the most famous scene in the Fallout franchise. I don’t see anyone going near that in the screen adaptation, but it’d make a good plot device.
8. Tycho (Fallout)
Many Wastelanders get by through a certain kind of unshakeable grit. Tycho is one of them; a hard-drinking regular at the Skum Pitt, the grimiest establishment in the franchise. Years spent as a Ranger make him well-travelled and extremely capable in a fight, though his experiences haven’t dulled his spirit or sense of morality.
Conveniently, Tycho comes from Las Vegas, and since the second season of Fallout is heading to New Vegas, there’s an opportunity to fold him back into the tapestry here. He’s not been seen since the first game, making a reappearance long overdue.
7. Sunny Smiles (Fallout: New Vegas)
Someone’s gotta clean up the supersized lizards of the desert, and Sonny Smiles is one of the best. Besides trapping mutated geckos, she oversees the general defences of the town of Goodsprings, and if any of the Fallout show’s protagonists swing by this little township, she’ll probably be found questioning who they are and what they’re about.
Don’t expect her to get too involved in anyone else’s struggle, mind. Sonny favours neutrality, to protect the little sliver of peace she has. But that’s what’d make her a worthwhile addition in Fallout season 2, in the face of Maximus and Lucy’s obvious leanings.
6. Skynet (Fallout 2)
Artificial Intelligence project #59234 for the technical and slightly less IP-infringing name. Harkening back to before the world became a desert of ash, this AI started as just a mere tool, gradually evolving over centuries to become autonomous. But unlike the machines of The Terminator or The Matrix, this bot doesn’t want to do any more damage to us.
Instead, it hopes to eventually place itself into a cybernetic brain, in order to be then transferred into a body that can move around. Such humble aspirations! There’s a suggestion that extra-terrestrials were involved in its creation, and as Fallout season 2 is rumored to include aliens, this would be an easy oddity of Fallout 2 to include.
5. Craig Boone (Fallout: New Vegas)
“War, war never changes,” proclaims Ron Perlman’s iconic narration across the Fallout games. Few embody this nihilistic view than Craig Boone, a diehard former soldier of the New California Republic who finds himself gradually weathered down by the repeated carnage of the post-post-apocalyptic trenches.
Numerous battles of questionable morality left him unable to actively serve the NCR, but he’d never betray his fellow service-people for the enemy either. A watchman in the Mojave Wasteland, he’s a warrior through and through, making him a potentially fascinating foil to The Ghoul’s gun-for-hire ethos in the TV show.
4. Fawkes (Fallout 3)
One of the super mutants from Vault 87 (aka one of the best Fallout Vaults around), though categorically less murderous than his brethren. Instead, Fawkes is more like Beast from the X-Men: studious and aware of his faculties, despite his appearance.
A predisposition towards peace made him an outcast among the other mutants, who locked him away in isolation. A mission in Fallout 3 allows the player to free him, and it’s an easy bit of poetry if the TV show canonized such a thing further. Either way, he deserves to transition over to the small screen because, frankly, we need more lovable heroes like him.
3. Nick Valentine (Fallout 4)
Vaults aren’t the only underground habitats in the Fallout universe, as the Institute sits below what used to be Boston. This elitist and science-driven society has been making advancements for decades, among them being synths – advanced artificial humanoids. Nick is an early model, whose personality is modeled by the memories of a pre-war detective.
He now serves as a public investigator, specializing in missing people. That would be awfully useful to Lucy, wouldn’t it? Diamond City, where Nick resides in Fallout 4, is a trek from New Vegas, but if an appearance in season 2 doesn’t happen, season 3 would be the next best thing.
2. Harold (Fallout 1/2/3)
There isn’t a huge amount of crossover between the first two, Interplay-developed Fallout games and Bethesda’s more modern installments. Harold is a character who bridges the eras, a mutated cross between a ghoul and a tree who’s seen near enough everything the irradiated landscape can throw at him.
Fallout’s own twisted version of the Deku Tree from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Harold, is more resistant to being worshipped or sought after. A cult forms around him, since he’s a literal oasis in the unrelenting desert, though he ultimately wishes for death. Not only should the TV adaptation honor his standing within the franchise, but his whole concept would also make for a heart-rending subplot.
1. Joshua Graham (Fallout: New Vegas)
Fallout season 2 includes Caesar’s Legion from Fallout: New Vegas, a nomadic force intent on invading and taking over the New California Republic. The group’s belief system includes slavery, among other horrifying ideals. Joshua Graham is an early adopter of the Legion, and his Mormon beliefs are gradually whittled down by Caesar’s brutality.
He’s eventually punished for failings in battle, radicalizing him to oppose the Legion at every opportunity. Remarkably self-aware, he deems himself alone responsible for his actions, despite Caesar’s intoxicating influence, and now seeks redemption. There’s no better candidate for insight into the Legion, with a backstory that eventually becomes optimistic.
To keep up to date with the new season, check out our guide to the Fallout season 2 release schedule. Or if you want to know about the next game, we also have a page on everything that you need to know about Fallout 5.
