Spoilers for the latest episode of Fallout Season 2, “Demon in the Snow,” lie ahead, so read on if you dare.
Fallout’s second season has officially reached the halfway mark, and this latest chapter in the violent, post-apocalyptic saga is only heating up amid the 2026 TV schedule. So far, viewers have seen some intriguing creatures within this show and, this week, they got a glimpse at the Deathclaw. To put it simply, the monsters look both terrifying and awesome from a production standpoint. CinemaBlend caught up with series star Walton Goggins, who opened up about filming the scenes that involved the massive beasts.
Those familiar with the video games on which this show is based are surely aware that Deathclaws are giant, reptilian creatures that can pretty much rip anything they come into contact with to shreds. During a flashback in the prologue of “Demon in the Snow,” Cooper Howard (the man who becomes the Ghoul) witnesses one of the monsters murder enemy operatives while at war and, in the present, he and Lucy run into one in Las Vegas at the end of this week's episode.
When it comes to more recent TV and film productions, it’s common for such grandiose monsters to be created solely with the use of visual effects. However, when CB asked Walton Goggins about them, he also emphasized how there’s a practical element to the imposing behemoths:
…. there is a crazy, practical look to everything that we do here. And what I mean by that is we're looking at puppeteers. You know, these aren't there is not nothing. We're not looking at a tennis ball. We're looking at artists working really, really hard to make this as intimidating as they possibly can. You know, with puppets, and so they build off of these puppets.
These may be some of the most gruesome and ambitious puppets I’ve ever seen. In all seriousness, though, I love the Fallout team’s commitment to practicality whenever possible. Because of that approach, the series’ heightened world feels incredibly tangible, and I’d imagine that also helps further immerse the actors on set as well. It sounds like Walton Goggins is quite impressed with these methods and, while sharing more thoughts, he recalled a monstrous scene from earlier in the season:
But like, everything in this story, so much of it is tactile, it is analog. And there is one scene in particular where, you know, I'm attacked by a red scorpion. I can say that without giving really anything away. That was a guy pulling a string for a puppet that just jumped off the shelf and hit me, and the rest of that's just your reactions to it. But that's what [executive producer] Jonathan Nolan wanted to do at the outset of this experience for the audience.
I honestly can’t help but echo Walton Goggins’ amazement over the video game adaptation, which has already been renewed for a third season at Prime Video. Goggins and co. also do a great job reacting to the mutant forces that have been created solely for the show. What also seems evident is that Goggins enjoyed working on the new season, between paying homage to his favorite movie during the season premiere and hanging out with the dog (known as Dogmeat).
As far as the Deathclaws go, the end of the fourth episode set the stage for Lucy and Ghoul to have a dangerous showdown in next week’s installment. Fans wanting to see how everything pans out should have a Prime Video subscription handy when the next Fallout episode drops on Wednesday, January 14, at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT.
