Her character may have been killed off in the season one finale of Yellowjackets (whoops, spoiler alert!), but Ella Purnell is staying booked and busy. Variety reported on Wednesday that the English actress was cast in a leading role in Amazon’s upcoming Fallout TV series.
Fallout is based on the popular dystopian video game series of the same name. Set in 2077, the world as envisioned by Americans post-World-War-II has been transformed into a bleak wasteland through nuclear war. Purnell will star opposite Walton Goggins, whose previous credits include Sons of Anarchy, Justified, and The Righteous Gemstones.
Amazon is keeping details about Purnell and Goggins’ characters under wraps for the time being, but according to sources who spoke to Variety, she is “described as upbeat and uncannily direct with an all-American can-do spirit.” Yet, despite her perky, ambitious exterior, she is believed to be guarding a dark secret.
Plans to adapt the Fallout games were first announced in 2020. Since then, Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, the husband-wife duo behind HBO’s reality-bending drama Westworld, have joined as executive producers. Nolan (brother of famous filmmaker Chris) is set to direct the first episode. Known for her work as the screenwriter of the Alicia-Vilkander-led Tomb Raider reboot, Geneva Robertson-Dworet is serving as co-showrunner with Silicon Valley’s Graham Wagner.
Fallout joins the growing list of upcoming TV series adapted from video games, including adaptations of Assassin's Creed and Resident Evil, both from Netflix. It is scheduled to begin filming later this year.