Fallout showrunner sees Season 2’s best cameo ‘as a big role,’ hints they might be back in future episodes

Notorious sandwich lover Ron Perlman made a surprise appearance in the second season of the Fallout TV series on Prime, and if you don’t want any spoilers you should probably stop reading now—and yes, I know, that in itself is something of a spoiler, but there’s only so much I can do here.

If you’re still reading, the quick low-down is that in Season 2 Episode 6, “The Other Player,” Perlman shows up very briefly as a super mutant who saves The Ghoul—that’s Walton Goggins—from an unpleasant fate. It’s one of those moments where you hear the voice and think, could it be? And then you see the face, and yup, it sure is. And then he’s gone.

It’s a cool little Easter egg for Fallout fans, but it’s apparently not just a quick one-shot to say sorry for cheaping out on the whole “War never changes” thing. In an interview with The Direct, co-showrunner and writer Geneva Robertson-Dworet said she has bigger things in mind for the character, and hopes to dive deeper into it.

“I’ve always seen that [super mutant] as a big role,” Robertson-Dworet said. “It’s just kind of how that story is going to unfold with that character is, you know, again, we’re hoping to have the opportunity to continue this story, and we like the idea of hinting at larger wars, larger fights in this world that are taking place that maybe aren’t in the region of the wasteland where our characters currently are, and to get to those things.

“So I’d say, just because he appears in one scene this season, I hope people know that he is a larger character in this world, in our minds.”

That’s pretty vague, and far from a guarantee of anything. Being “a larger character in this world” doesn’t necessarily mean more screen time for Perlman: Super mutants could quite easily be leveraged as an off-screen device to drive other events in a way that’s big but not seen.

But super mutants are an iconic element of Fallout, up there with power armor, vaults, and silly blue overalls, so it’d be kind of bananas (so I think, anyway) to introduce them and then not follow up on it in some meaningful way—especially when you go to the trouble of getting Ron Freakin’ Perlman to do the job. How do you not pursue that aggressively in future episodes?

On the other hand, maybe getting him to take the role wasn’t all that much trouble at all. ‘Two sandwiches, 50 bucks, an hour of your time?’ I would imagine Perlman is charging somewhat higher rates for his services these days, but you don’t know unless you ask, right?