Fallout Season 2 First-Look Images Feature Some Major New Vegas Clues

This article contains mild spoilers from the Fallout game series.

One of the best video game adaptations on television has been Prime Video’s post-apocalyptic epic Fallout, based on the iconic Bethesda Softworks game series of the name. With Fallout returning for its eagerly-anticipated second season this December, Prime Video and Kilter Films have provided first-look images from the upcoming season. In addition to the return of several familiar faces from the acclaimed first season, the official series stills shed more light on the season’s setting of New Vegas.

New Vegas was introduced in the world of the live-action Prime Video series in the first season finale, with Hank MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan) fleeing to the desert city after his villainous past was exposed to his daughter Lucy (Ella Purnell). The New Vegas skyline is seen in the closing moments of the episode, with the walled city apparently in ruins, at least from what can be observed from Hank’s perspective at a distance. Looming over the rest of the community is the Lucky 38, a casino converted into a tightly guarded fortress that gamers who have played 2010’s Fallout: New Vegas will recognize.

What Is New Vegas?

As the name would suggest, New Vegas is a survivor community built in and around the ruins of Las Vegas after a devastating nuclear war in the 21st century that caused widespread societal collapse. Across the Mojave Wasteland, as the region is now known, three major factions are fighting for control, with the power struggle centralized around the Hoover Dam and its capacity to provide electricity to the surrounding area. These factions are the New California Republic (NRC), which controls the Hoover Dam at the start of Fallout: New Vegas, the barbaric Caesar’s Legion, and the enigmatic Mr. House, who has his own designs for the Hoover Dam and its role in the region.

Mr. House is an industrialist living in the Lucky 38, originally designing the casino to protect the city from the impending nuclear war, only to have the region bombed before he could finish the necessary technological upgrades. Mr. House’s presence is felt throughout the entire Mojave Wasteland, both with the Lucky 38 prominently visible in the desert and his machinations from the safety of his penthouse casino. With that in mind, let’s go deeper on the Lucky 38’s role in Fallout: New Vegas and its appearance in the Fallout Prime Video series, at least so far.

What Is the Lucky 38?

The Lucky 38 is a resort and casino designed by Mr. House as the tallest building in Las Vegas, also intended to defend the region from nuclear warheads but lacking the necessary Platinum Chip to adequately upgrade its defense programming. House also secretly included a well-protected chamber inside of the Lucky 38’s control room to provide him with a full life support system, albeit with his physical form constrained and withered away, while he communicates to others through a digital avatar of himself in his prime. After the NCR seized control of the Hoover Dam, the systems within the Lucky 38 were reactivated following a lengthy dormancy, with House’s forces securing control of the Las Vegas Strip and negotiating with the locals outside the casino.

However, the Lucky 38 and Mr. House’s presence in the Mojave Wasteland is most acutely felt with his widespread deployment of Securitrons, deadly robots House unleashed to defend his interests in the region. Housed in a large underground facility underneath the Lucky 38, House has an entire army of Securitrons to carry out his will, with the robots openly employing lethal force. With such a formidable ensemble at his command, Mr. House has reestablished himself as the most powerful single figure in New Vegas from the safety of the Lucky 38.

How New Vegas May Figure into Fallout Season 2

The official images from Fallout season 2 show the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) in his unmutated state as Cooper Howard visiting Las Vegas before the nuclear war. Cooper is seen glancing through a car window at the neon-lit casino signs, with the Lucky 38’s logo prominently reflected in the window. This suggests Cooper may actually visit the Lucky 38 and meet Mr. House himself, at least before the city is completely devastated by the nuclear strike in the region. As the Ghoul, Cooper may potentially revisit the area and the Lucky 38, which may prompt a flashback to his history in Vegas before his transformation.

Interestingly, the main Fallout series is set in 2296, 15 years after the events of Fallout: New Vegas’ 2281 chronological setting. This presents the possibility that the show could provide a canonical answer to how the events of the video game unfolded, given so much of the story’s progression was determined by the player’s individual actions. More than just revealing which faction came out as superior in New Vegas, the show could also include the final fate of Mr. House, especially if the Lucky 38 figures into the second season’s story. And with Hank MacLean looking for a place to take refuge in New Vegas, what better place to set up shop than the Lucky 38 itself?

Fallout is available to stream on Prime Video. Season 2 is scheduled to premiere in December 2025.