‘Fallout’ Star Ella Purnell On The Big Changes For Lucy In Season 2
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BusinessHollywood & Entertainment‘Fallout’ Star Ella Purnell On The Big Changes For Lucy In Season 2ByTim Lammers,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I cover Hollywood and entertainment.Follow AuthorDec 16, 2025, 02:41pm ESTElla Purnell as Lucy MacLean in "Fallout" Season 2.Lorenzo Sisti/Prime VideoEven though Ella Purnell knew first season of Fallout was embraced by fans of the smash hit video game series and non-gamers, the actor admitted that it didn’t make her return to play the effervescent vault dweller Lucy MacLean in Season 2 any less nerve-wracking.True, Purnell had the comfort of knowing the show won over a tough crowd as successful screen adaptations are often difficult to achieve, but she also knows she had to amp up her game as an actor if she were to maintain the momentum she established as the fan favorite Lucy in Season 1.Forbes‘Fallout’ Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Drop?By Tim Lammers“I mean, you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't, however the show was received,” Purnell said in a recent Zoom conversation. “It still would have felt equally as terrifying going into another season, but also, strangely, it takes some of the pressure off just knowing that we're all doing it together.”Fallout Season 2 debuts Tuesday night on Prime Video with Episode 1.MORE FOR YOUWhile the cast of the series — which also includes Walton Goggins, Aaron Moten, Kyle MacLachlan, Moisés Arias, Annabel O’Hagan and Frances Turner — have a huge set of expectations to live up to, Purnell feels that the show’s creators Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner and their writers “felt more pressure living up to the hype of Season 1.”Forbes‘Fallout’ Season 2 Arrives With 100% Critics’ Score On Rotten TomatoesBy Tim LammersOne thing Purnell knew for certain coming into Fallout Season 2 was that she had a lot of fun playing Lucy in Season 1 and she wanted more of that.“I felt excited to come back into it because I know this character now,” Purnell enthused. “I want to explore her and the ways in which I want to collaborate with others. I felt just like we barely scratched her surface and I felt excited to come back.”Ella Purnell Explains Why Lucy Doesn’t ‘Hate’ Her Father HankFallout Season 2 follows the emotionally cataclysmic finale of Season 1, where Ella Purnell’s Lucy MacLean learns about her father Hank’s true nature and his evil past, which includes the dark truth about the fate of her mother.In Season 2, Lucy and The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) continue to traverse the nuclear irradiated soils of The Wasteland to the iconic Fallout videogame setting of New Vegas to find Hank. As such, what was once a search driven by Lucy’s love for her father in Season 1 turns into a quest to find him for a difficult purpose. ForbesWhat Time Does ‘Fallout’ Season 2 Begin Streaming Tuesday?
How To WatchBy Tim LammersIn one of the early episodes of Fallout Season 2, Lucy explains in a poignant line of dialogue that she doesn’t hate Hank despite his horrific actions but instead wants to bring him to justice to answer for all the evil things that he’s done.“It’s one of my favorite lines in the whole show because they say the opposite of love isn’t hate,” Purnell said. “The opposite of love is indifference and vice versa … The reason she hates him is because she loves him. You don't just stop loving someone if you find out they're a monster, it hurts you [instead]. So, hate is not her driving force.”Kyle MacLachlan as Hank MacLean in "Fallout" Season 2.Prime Video/Lorenzo SistiWhile Lucy maintains her positive demeanor that she had in Season 1 on the outside — the singsong-y quip “okey doke!” is still part of her vocabulary — some decidedly different emotions are swirling around in her mind in Season 2. However, instead of running away from the pain and anguish over the damning revelations about her father, Lucy confronts them.“The reason she’s in The Wasteland and that she’s putting up with The Ghoul is to find her father, and she believes she's going to bring him to justice,” Purnell explained. “And of course, how we think we're gonna behave and conduct ourselves in these situations is very different from what we actually do.”Forbes‘Fallout’ TV Series Gets New Action Figures Ahead Of Season 2By Tim LammersAs such, the idea of how Lucy will bring Hank to justice remains a mystery — at least at as Season 2 gets underway.Assessing Lucy’s dilemma, Purnell posed the sprawling, complex question of what she’ll do with Hank when she finds him, if at all: “How has her experience with The Ghoul and how was her experience in The Wasteland — witnessing all of the pain and the death and the murder and carnage, and just the sad things people have to do to survive — how has that shaped her enough to change how she actually does react when she sees him again?”Adapted from the blockbuster Fallout video game series by Bethesda Softworks, Fallout Season 2 premieres Tuesday night on Prime Video with Episode 1.ForbesGlen Powell’s ‘The Running Man’ New On Streaming This WeekBy Tim LammersEditorial StandardsReprints & PermissionsLOADING VIDEO PLAYER...FORBES’ FEATURED Video