Fallout TV show - The Ghoul and Cooper Howard explained: What is Walton Goggins' character? (2024)

The article contains minor spoilers for Fallout episode 1.

The Fallout TV show on Amazon Prime Video has debuted early with a new star character, The Ghoul, a seemingly invincible, skull-nosed former actor, Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins), who survives a nuclear blast on nothing but a diet of drugs, ultra-violence and cherry tomatoes. But how?

Fallout ghouls explained from the video games

Fans of the Fallout games will know that ghouls were obviously previously humans (and occasionally there are ghoul animals, too), however, thanks to radioactive nuclear fallout, they survive a lot longer than normal humans, thanks to a process called 'ghoulification'.

They can still consume normal food and drink, but can also stomach irradiated food, and can metabolise drugs much quicker, meaning they can take higher doses. In the show we see The Ghoul taking lots of narcotics, including Jet, the in-universe inhalable drug, which one raider huffs in episode one before being halved by the vault door.

In the game universe, ghouls are sometimes healed and strengthened by radiation, and generally left infertile by the process, which you think would be the least of their problems, but there are characters with a 'ghoul fetish' in the Fallout world. Yep, really.

By and large, ghouls are discriminated against, and often banned from settlements within the world. However, there was one example of a major location just for them, aptly called The Necropolis or The City of the Dead in southern California, which could appear in the show, given it's set in Los Angeles.

We also hear a reference to the idea of going 'feral' in the TV series, which also plays out with one character in a later episode. Once a ghoul goes feral, they become very similar to the zombies they're mimicking, and it's generally considered a matter of time before this happens. In extreme cases, some of them can even end up glowing from all the radiation.

Interestingly, within the Fallout world, there are also characters called Super Mutants, huge, strong, Hulk-green, violent monsters, who transform thanks to experiences with something called the Forced Evolutionary Virus, and we bet they'll make an appearance in the show somewhere along the line.

Within the lore of the games, there are generally two ways humans can get their ghoul on. Generally, radiation kills (obviously) but somehow gradual exposure will result in ghouls who survive and look humanoid. They'll often have flaking skin, exposed muscles, missing noses and ears, and a coarse raspy voice.

The second way is surviving a nuclear blast while very close to the impact zone. This version of the transformation is meant to be much faster and more traumatic. This seems likely to be what happened to Cooper Howard, given the shot we leave him at in the opening of the show, fleeing on horseback with his daughter as bombs drop around him.

However, it's noted that this 'Cooper Ghoul' is the oldest in the wasteland, so somehow he's managed to avoid the feral fate for longer than others…

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Fallout TV show - The Ghoul explained by Walton Goggins

Speaking to Digital Spy exclusively about how his character works, Walton Goggins explained: "Those parameters are still being explored, I never asked Jonah [Nolan, Fallout's director and showrunner] that question. Is he a lizard? If his arm is cut off, does another just kinda grow? I really don't know the answer to all of that, but he's super f**king cool, and that I do know.

"You have a guy that existed before the bombs fell, and in that world, he was a protagonist, representing this American exceptionalism, and then you meet him 200 years later. While he is an antagonist in his relationship with Lucy (Ella Purnell) – for The Wasteland, he's an iconic kinda figure, and someone that has survived all this time.

"Maybe even one of the only people, there's a few others out there. On that level, he's a protagonist in the world of the Wasteland as he's survived."

Digital Spy also learned that in the script, The Ghoul's face was described as a "melted candle". Ella Purnell explained: "Seeing you in person for the first time, it's freaky, as you look human, I can see your eyes, obviously, it's Walton. It's alien. It's creepy."

In later episodes of the show, The Ghoul almost perishes after missing his fix of drugs, and his tolerance is incredibly high, as he explains Lucy's lacklustre tranquiliser dart is a "very small drop, in a very large bucket of drugs".

Walton added: "He's the ultimate capitalist. If he is a corporation, he is all about himself, and all about survival. I don't think you can judge his morality, or anyone's morality for survival on the surface, with say the morality of the vault dweller. It's a very different, it's a morality of convenience, as all of your needs were met. But none of their needs were met. But I can't wait to see how the audience [reacts] and to have those conversations as the show comes up."

The Ghoul seems poised to become a fan-favourite character, in the vein of The Walking Dead's Daryl Dixon, but placing his allegiances will be even harder than working out the extent of his powers.

Fallout season 1 drops all 8 episodes on Prime Video on April 10 in the US, and April 11 in the UK.