Walton Goggins on the Fallout show's three main characters as 'avatars' for players: 'It's almost like three different religions'

At a panel today before The Game Awards, the cast of the upcoming Prime Video Fallout TV series spoke about how they viewed the three characters they're playing on the show.

We got a glimpse of those three main characters in the first Fallout series trailer last week. There's Lucy, played by Ella Purnell, leaving the Vault for the first time (as so many players have done in the game). We saw Maximus, played by Aaron Moten, traveling with the Brotherhood of Steel as they cross California. And then there's Walton Goggins as gunslinging outlaw The Ghoul, relishing some frenzied combat in the town of Philly.

In some ways an inexperienced newcomer, an idealistic crusader, and a manic with a six-shooter represent not just different kinds of characters... but different kinds of Fallout players. 

At the panel, the cast said they see it that way, too.

"I think the character creator is where that idea comes from," said Moten. "Jonah [director Jonathan Nolan] has been talking a lot about how he's the type of player that spends eight hours in the Creator before he can even launch into the game."

"I think all three of our characters are so different," Purnell said. "You can't think of what our characters would have in common when you first meet them. You'd have no idea. But I think by the end you realize that there were survivors in different ways."

"They are three avatars essentially, right?" Goggins added. "To me, it's almost like three different religions.

"You have the naivete of the Vault Dweller, and this can-do kind of open attitude that she comes to the world with," Goggins continued. As for Aaron Moten's character Maximus, "He's looking for courage, and he's looking for order, right? He wants to bring order to this universe," said Goggins. 

"And then you have the ghoul, [who] just embraces the chaos. And if you think about it, if you put the three together, that's a great theology, man. That's a great way to live your life on some level," Goggins said.

"And it's cool, is what I'm saying," he added. "It's really cool."

We'll find out how cool in a few months: The Fallout TV series will stream on Prime Video beginning on April 12.