Fallout Season 2 Promises a Fresh New Vegas Without Erasing Your 1,000-Hour Journey, Todd Howard Says
Exclusive: Todd Howard weighs a potential return to New Vegas, revealing why the Mojave still calls and what would need to fall into place to make it real.
Fallout is packing its bags for New Vegas again, and Todd Howard just explained how the show plans to walk back into one of the franchise's most sacred sandboxes without breaking anything fans love. Short version: treat it like a brand-new project, respect everyone’s wildly different playthroughs, and still take a few big swings.
Starting fresh, on purpose
Howard told GamesRadar+ that the team is approaching the return to Vegas the same way they kick off a new game: with a clean slate. That sounds basic, but in Fallout terms it means not getting pinned down by any one player’s history with the city.
"It’s going back to authenticity. What would we want to see as a fan? Make it as authentic as possible and come at it with a lot of thought, a lot of love, but also take some swings."
He also flagged the obvious headache: millions of players made different choices in Fallout: New Vegas. There isn’t one canon journey to honor; there are a thousand. So the question becomes how to nod to all of that without contradicting it.
Wagner and Robertson-Dworet’s 'fog of war' plan
Co-showrunners Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet have a way into that mess: lean into the mystery. The team is using a kind of narrative 'fog of war' to keep the past blurry where it needs to be, while asking the forward-looking question that matters for the show: what are the factions up to now? That lets them respect your personal New Vegas without stapling one definitive ending onto the TV canon.
Lucy, The Ghoul, and the road to the Strip
You could already feel the show steering that direction by the end of season 1, and Howard basically confirms the vibe: as Lucy, The Ghoul, and the rest of the wasteland strays head toward the Strip, expect a fan-first approach with a few calculated risks. The goal is the stuff you want to see, done with care, not a timid checklist.
Mr. House steps out of the vault
About the big question everyone had: Mr. House. He popped up briefly in season 1 after running the chessboard in the 2010 game, which led to an early debate behind the scenes: do they bring him in, and how much? The verdict was basically: yes, absolutely. Howard calls him one of the best characters in the franchise and notes that he’s the first major game character they’ve fully brought into the show. It’s a swing, but a smart one.
No single New Vegas 'canon'
If you’re wondering whether the series is locking into one specific New Vegas outcome, the answer is still no. The showrunners have been clear they aren’t committing to a single version of those events. That keeps the door open for anyone’s headcanon to coexist with whatever the show reveals next.
- They’re treating the return to Vegas like a fresh project, not a lore trap.
- The plan is to honor every player’s New Vegas run by keeping some history deliberately hazy and focusing on where factions stand now.
- Lucy and The Ghoul are heading toward the Strip, so expect familiar vibes without a rigid checklist.
- Mr. House is officially in play, the first big game character to cross over in a real way.
- The north star is authenticity for fans, with room to take risks instead of playing it safe.