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‘Fallout’ Team Talks About “Not F*cking Up” Season 2 Of Their Series

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Two-hundred years after the apocalypse, The Wasteland is a pretty bleak place to be. It is not, one would imagine, the ideal location for a buddy road-trip comedy between an optimistic Vault Dweller and a mutated, decaying and dangerous outlaw.

But that’s the scenario that played out for Ella Purnell’s Lucy and Walton Goggins’ The Ghoul on Season 2 of Prime Video‘s Fallout as they reluctantly teamed up to find their family, for very different reasons.

“Lucy’s on this road trip with The Ghoul. They’re annoying each other, they’re like a married couple, bickering and trying to sort of influence the other. It’s a really fun starting place, and we got to see some really incredible locations,” Purnell said during a conversation with fellow cast and creatives for the Deadline Studio at Prime Experience.

She was joined by fellow castmembers Goggins, Frances Turner, Kyle MacLachlan, Aaron Moten, Moisés Arias and Justin Theroux; and executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Todd Howard. Watch the panel discussion below and scroll down for photos from the event.

Lucy is searching for her father Hank (MacLachlan) in order to bring him to justice, while The Ghoul, formerly known as movie star Cooper Howard, is on a search for clues about his pre-apocalypse life and what happened to his wife and daughter after the blasts.

The Ghoul betrays Lucy during the journey, but does, eventually redeem himself, somewhat. “He did put her through a lot. They wouldn’t want to admit it, but they have both influenced each other,” Purnell said. “That moment where he betrays her and she punches him out the window… really was such a defining moment for Lucy. She doesn’t act out of anger and she doesn’t inflict a ton of violence on people the way that The Ghoul does and that’s a moment where she really did think they were becoming friends and that’s such a personal hurt and betrayal. So, when he comes back and saves her at the end, it’s like, OK, he’s redeemed himself a bit, there’s still room to grow.”

Is The Ghoul working on himself? “From The Ghoul’s perspective, there was real shame and emotion that he hasn’t felt for maybe 200 years, and that was real, and it was just one of the many things that kind of happened along this journey for him,” said Goggins.

In the finale, Cooper Howard’s wife Barb leaves a postcard in the cryo-chamber, which indicates that perhaps The Ghoul’s family are safe. Are they? “I don’t know that I could speak to that totally, but I can tell you that it was not without a lot of deliberation by the powers that be,” Goggins added. “What does it mean if he does find them? He could have found them, right? It is the first moment in 200 years where hope really does spring eternal.”

The series was created by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, who exec produce alongside Nolan and Lisa Joy.

Nolan previously said that the challenge of Season 1 was figuring out how to approach a video game known for its scale and attention to detail. What was the challenge for Season 2?

“Not f*cking it up,” Nolan joked. “You’ve got a group of people who enjoy the show and you’ve reached that larger audience, and so you want to reach for new heights. I think the second season was hugely ambitious and hugely exciting in terms of where we’re able to take these characters with this unbelievable cast.”

Moten plays stalwart soldier and newly knighted Maximus, who is grappling with his service to the increasingly militaristic and power-hungry Brotherhood of Steel and where he ultimately belongs. In Season 2, Maximus goes on his own journey of understanding how he can affect the world around him.

Moten said, “There are these moments that I think are embedded into the show about choice, where these characters get a moment where you know the camera might be sharing this thing with the audience, but it’s this moment where the character is making a choice and Maximus gets a lot of them. In silence, it’s him sort of observing the world around him.”

Talking of choice, Barb Howard makes her own choices, related to the future of the world, in her capacity at Vault-Tec. Essentially, Barb’s had two heel turns during the show’s first two seasons. Turner said, “I didn’t anticipate either one of them in the first season or second season, but I think it makes so much sense, because you see a woman who initially you just think of as a wife and mother… but she really gets turned, the archetype gets turned on its head. She has real wants, needs, desires, and a family that she loves and is protecting, and she’s driven by that protection with the fear underneath it.”

For MacLachlan, who plays the father of Lucy and Norm (Arias), this may be the most villainous character he’s ever played. He told Deadline that he’s “thrilled” to play someone so nefarious. Hank is dedicated to changing the world for the “better,” as defined by his specific ideals, and will stop at nothing in pursuit of that goal no matter how narrow-minded or self-serving it may be.

“He does some pretty awful things and yet I think the audience is somewhat uncertain as to how to respond to him because you can still see humanity in him,” he said.

Norm is one of Vault 33’s few skeptics or rebels. He began the show as a complete coward but his curious nature thrust him down a path of uncovering dark, dangerous secrets about his family, as well as being attacked by a swarm of Radroaches.

“Norm in Season 1 is this observant, skeptical sort of character, then at the beginning of the second season… he’s really thrust from observing into a leading position, and that’s what was most exciting, playing all those thoughtful moments and thrust into action,” Arias said.

There were also some new characters joining Season 2 of the series including Robert House, played by Theroux, an enigmatic, all-powerful technocrat dedicated to the pursuit of his own interests by any means necessary. Theroux said it was a “joyous” job to get. “The words are good, the sets are good, the acting is good, and the direction is top-drawer,” he said.

House is a major character in the New Vegas game; not a lonely guy, Theroux insists, but one perfectly happy being alone with his thoughts. He compared House to some of his “intellectual” family members. “I know a couple that I think have a better time during the day just sitting at home alone thinking on their couch, and at the end of the day maybe scribbling some stuff down on paper, and they don’t do well mixing with others,” he said.

The success of the Fallout series – it has already been renewed for Season 3 – has had a big impact on the video game, according to Howard, who leads development of the game franchise.

He said that the key to adapting it was to make it “authentic” and not worry too much about getting into fan service. “We have so many people who they’ve never played the games, and they never will, and that’s OK, but they love Fallout, just like somebody now who has played it for decades,” he said.

For more Deadline Studio at Prime Experience content, click here.

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Obama Relives Tan Suit Debacle In ‘Life, Larry & Pursuit of Unhappiness’

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As Larry David‘s comedic trip through U.S. history comes to an end, he took credit for one of the nation’s more recent presidential scandals.

On Friday’s season finale of the HBO sketch comedy miniseries Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, President Barack Obama made a surprise appearance as himself in a sketch set in 2014, as David advised him to wear the now-infamous, outrage-inducing tan suit during his live press conference on military response to ISIS.

Following some banter on how the POTUS avoids stains, David accidentally spills juice on Obama’s suit jacket when he leaves the room. When the 44th president returns, the comedian recommends he wear the tan suit that Obama planned on taking it to Turin for NATO Summit, for “a daytime event, it’s outdoors, a little more casual.”

“First of all, it’s a gorgeous suit,” David declared. “And this is casual Friday!”

“It is a great suit,” admitted Obama, as David told him, “Oh boy, oh boy. I think this is the move. … Old lips won’t let you down. You’ll thank me!”

As Obama models the look, David gives him his signature, “Pretty good! Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.”

“You sure about this?” asks Obama, as David assures him, “Never been more sure about anything in my life. People are going to be talking about this for a long, long time.”

Obama’s cameo in the finale comes as David marks the United States Semiquencentennial with the seven-part sketch comedy limited series, which recounts major events in U.S. history through the comedian’s signature observational humor.

David’s longtime Curb Your Enthusiasm partner Jeff Schaffer, who serves as an executive producer on Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, previously told Deadline that Obama, who produced under his Higher Ground banner, reached out to his buddy David to ask if he’d be interested in making the show to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday.

“When you’re doing a show about American history, you want to do it warts and right now we have this orange saggy wart that we wish would go away,” said Schaffer. “But the nice thing about having President Obama produce this and be a part of it is that this country’s had a lot of fuck ups, we’ve seemed to have learned very little, but we’re still moving forward sometimes, and then we move back a little bit, but we always move forward again. While Larry’s pointing out a lot of the steps back, the President is telling us we can still step forward.”

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Matthew McConaughey Performs “Quill” From ‘Rivals of Amziah King’ — Watch

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Matthew McConaughey shows off his vocal skills (and some hidden banjo talents) with his latest role in The Rivals of Amziah King.

On Friday, Lakeshore Records released the single and music video for “Quill” from the original motion picture soundtrack, performed by the Oscar-winning and co-star Ben Hardesty, also featuring Miranda Zickler, Angelina LookingGlass and Andrea Pister.

Set in the backwoods of Oklahoma, The Rivals of Amziah King follows the musically gifted Amaziah King (McConaughey) and his bluegrass-playing band of misfits while overseeing the premier honey-making operation in town. When Amaziah’s estranged foster daughter unexpectedly returns, he leaps at the chance to reconnect and create a family business. But the honey game is ruthless, and Amaziah’s rivals threaten to destroy everything he has built.

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Premiering Aug. 14 in theaters, the Andrew Patterson-written-and-directed drama also stars Angelina LookingGlass, Cole Sprouse, Jake Horowitz, Tony Revolori and Kurt Russell.

Producers are David Heyman, Teddy Schwarzman, Jeffrey Clifford, Michael Heimler, James Montague and Will Greenfield.

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Jane Schoenbrun On Tackling “Toxic Soup” Of Slasher Genre In ‘Camp Miasma’

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With their latest directorial outing, Jane Schoenbrun used subtle pieces of nostalgia to deconstruct the slasher genre.

The Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma writer/director explained to Deadline that they wanted to create “a mindset where you can really enjoy something scary,” noting the frequent symbolism of candy and junk food as providing an atmosphere “that’s actually safe” while diving into a horror movie or exploring sexuality after trauma.

“There is this idea that if it gets too real, you can turn it off, that you’re exploring something dangerous, doing it in a way that’s actually safe,” said Schoenbrun, who is non-binary. “Which in my experience of coming into my sexual identity post-transition, kind of required some gummy candy on hand. What I mean by that is, even if we’re going to be exploring scary and vulnerable and potentially embarrassing, triggering parts of ourselves, we trust each other well enough to know that at any moment, we can be like, ‘Let’s stop, we gotta just eat some fucking gummies.’”

In Schoenbrun’s latest film, Hannah Einbinder stars as queer director Kris, who is tapped to helm a new installment of the long-running Camp Miasma horror franchise. While courting Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson), the actress who played the “final girl” in the original film, to reprise her role, the pair spirals into a psychosexual frenzy as the slasher’s killer, Little Death (Jack Haven), comes to life.

Acknowledging the problematic trans representation of horror films like Psycho (1960), Sleepaway Camp (1983), The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995), Schoenbrun admitted the genre has been “catnip to me since I was 10 years old,” and they jumped at the chance to direct their own.

Jane Schoenbrun at the
Jane Schoenbrun attends the ‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’ premiere on Aug. 5, 2026 in New York City.

“So many slashers do have this sense of humor, and even if they’re not overtly meta like the Scream movies are, they’re so aware of their own tropes and the sort of rituals … And I just loved that from a young age and loved all of the little rituals within it, and so, getting to make my own is just like play and joy,” they explained.

“But it also felt like the perfect way to talk about sex and to talk about my experience as a trans person post-transition, learning how to come into a sexual identity that I could feel comfortable within, because so many of these movies are obviously deeply engaged in gender and sexual roles, and these movies have so much to say for better or for worse about deviants,” said Schoenbrun. “It is there in the DNA of the slasher genre that these movies are talking about fear and desire, gender and sexuality, normativity and deviance. And that’s all swimming in the toxic soup of the genre, so I wanted to remake it in my own language.”

Read on about Jane Schoenbrun’s love letter to the slasher genre with Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, now playing in theaters.

DEADLINE: It was really fun to see the slasher genre through your eyes. Tell me about finding inspiration in that genre and “final girls.” 

JANE SCHOENBRUN: I mean, it was the easiest thing in the world because it’s just one of those genres that has been catnip to me since I was 10 years old. I just raided the horror section of the video store as a kid from an age when I really shouldn’t have been doing that, like in 5th grade, I watched in the span of about one week, every Nightmare on Elm Street movie. I think that I was always drawn to movies and really anything entertainment where it felt forbidden in some way, like the thing on the tape, how is that even allowed? And that’s the thing that I love about a lot of my favorite slashers. Don’t get me wrong, I love like brutal ones, like I love Texas Chainsaw, that’s a nasty movie at its core, and that’s what’s so special about it. But so many slashers do have this sense of humor, and even if they’re not overtly meta like the Scream movies are, they’re so aware of their own tropes and the sort of rituals of, OK, what’s the most outrageous way that like these like dumb kids can get killed? But watching it, it’s not about fear a lot of the time, it’s about joy and celebration. And I just loved that from a young age and loved all of the little rituals within it, and so, getting to make my own is just like play and joy. But it also felt like the perfect way to talk about sex and to talk about my experience as a trans person post-transition, learning how to come into a sexual identity that I could feel comfortable within, because so many of these movies are obviously deeply engaged in gender and sexual roles, and these movies have so much to say for better or for worse about deviants, whether that be Norman Bates or Buffalo Bill or Sleepway Camp or Jason, Michael Myers, Leatherface in drag. It is there in the DNA of the slasher genre that these movies are talking about fear and desire, gender and sexuality, normativity and deviance. And that’s all swimming in the toxic soup of the genre, so I wanted to remake it in my own language. 

‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’ (2026)

DEADLINE: I’m curious about the symbolism of all the processed junk food and the chandelier of wrappers.

SCHOENBRUN: The junk food in the movie, I forget when it found its way in there. It’s like so much of the movie is about, like I said, ritual, about being in a mindset where you can really enjoy something scary, whether that be Kris [Hannah Einbinder] in bed, with, you know, with Raisinets and the popcorn, watching a schlocky horror movie, or the two characters learning how to be present and enjoy sex after a lot of trauma. There is this idea that if it gets too real, you can turn it off, that you’re exploring something dangerous, doing it in a way that’s actually safe. Which in my experience of coming into my sexual identity post-transition, kind of required some gummy candy on hand. What I mean by that is, even if we’re going to be exploring scary and vulnerable and potentially embarrassing, triggering parts of ourselves, we trust each other well enough to know that at any moment, we can be like, “Let’s stop, we gotta just eat some fucking gummies.”

DEADLINE: And one thing I really love—I just feel like it’s a theme in your work—is how it depicts the way media and entertainment influence us. Why does that inspire you? 

SCHOENBRUN: I think it comes from a fascination and sensitivity to the complex relationship between what we think of as fiction and what we think of as reality, which we tend to, as a society, think of as pointing in one direction. Like, reality dictates fiction, not vice-versa, but when you actually look at the way the world works, it’s like one echoes off the other. And I think a complicated, sometimes terrifying and sometimes beautiful way, where the fiction, the cultural norms, the things we grow up looking at on our screens, the roles that we’re told people play, they kind of inspire us to create reality. There’s something liberating when you start thinking in that way. I think it’s a way of thinking that we as a culture, could do a lot more of. To think about the idea of fiction inspiring reality just as much as reality is inspiring fiction, is a potential path to liberating us from this hellscape that they’re telling us is the only way the world can be. 

Gillian Anderson in ‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’ (2026)

DEADLINE: And I know you have the Secretary reading. Tell me what it’s been like prepping for that and why you all chose that movie. 

SCHOENBRUN: I mean, that was such a huge influence on on Miasma. There just aren’t that many fun and funny movies about deviant sex. And just the way that movie is like feather light while talking about really raw and taboo things, it is just really inspiring to me. And the dynamic between those two main characters is definitely one that had a lot of influence on on Kris and Billy’s [Gillian Anderson] relationship in Miasma. And it’s already to me a very queer movie in its way, but having Gillian reading the James Spader part and Hannah reading the Maggie Gyllenhaal part, I think it’s just gonna be like a very unique joy. Honestly, we’ve been prepping a little bit, but I think it’s just gonna be about getting up there and feeling the chemistry of it all, and just letting these folks who we have all gotten to know each other really, really well, but we haven’t actually done anything wacky and creative like that in a while, like as a reunion, it’s gonna be a real blast, I think.

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