The upcoming second season of Fallout, premiering December 17, 2025, is set to explore themes strongly reminiscent of the Zack Snyder Fallout connection, particularly through Ella Purnell’s evolving character, Lucy MacLean. As excitement mounts, this new chapter draws notable parallels to Purnell’s previous performance in Army of the Dead, highlighting recurring dynamics of family and survival.
Parallels Between Fallout’s New Season and Army of the Dead
Fans anticipating Fallout’s next installment will notice familiar elements from Ella Purnell’s past role as Kate Ward in Zack Snyder’s post-apocalyptic film. In Army of the Dead, Purnell portrayed a young woman forced to navigate a devastated Las Vegas, grappling with her fractured relationship with her father amid quarantine and chaos after a zombie outbreak. Her character embarks on a mission exposing raw familial tension, ultimately leading to moments of lethal consequence involving her father, Scott Ward.
Fallout Season 2 brings Lucy MacLean full circle, echoing key aspects of Purnell’s older character. Lucy’s journey through a devastated “New Vegas”—a city rising from Las Vegas’s ruins—again thrusts her into a hazardous mission marked by loss and moral dilemmas. She is on a quest for justice tied to her father, paralleling Kate Ward’s torn loyalties and harrowing choices in Army of the Dead. The show teases that Lucy, having taken drastic action before, is capable of life-or-death decisions against those she encounters, including people who have become dangerously unrecognizable due to apocalyptic mutations.
Season one saw Lucy make an agonizing choice, killing her own mother, Rose, upon discovering she had become a suffering feral ghoul. This dramatic climax closely mirrors Kate Ward’s actions in Army of the Dead, where mercy—and survival instincts—collided against deep familial bonds, drawing tears from Purnell’s characters in both stories. In both roles, the actress faces the emotional fallout of ending a parent’s suffering when there seems to be no other option.
How Fallout Aims to Address Shortcomings from Army of the Dead
Ella Purnell’s approach to her character in Fallout is visibly shaped by her experience portraying Kate Ward for Zack Snyder. Once again, she steps into the shoes of a resilient female lead facing mutated threats and turbulent relationships with her father, set against a backdrop of lawless, post-disaster environments. However, Fallout aims to delve deeper into these themes, potentially correcting the weaknesses perceived in Army of the Dead’s portrayal of similar ideas.
When Army of the Dead debuted in 2021, it received a lukewarm reception from both audiences and critics, with reviews often citing its unfocused narrative and somewhat chaotic energy, despite its sharp genre references and occasional wit. Fallout’s new season, spearheaded by showrunners Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, presents an opportunity for Ella Purnell to revisit and elevate the troubled daughter archetype in a more nuanced narrative, possibly earning the acclaim Army of the Dead struggled to retain.
This approach not only gives Purnell a renewed opportunity to explore the complexities of post-apocalyptic survival, as seen through Lucy MacLean, but also allows the series to build upon and strengthen the Zack Snyder Fallout connection. With the setting shifting to New Vegas, and the foundational conflicts deepening, Fallout Season 2 stands poised to offer fans a more compelling evolution of familiar themes.
As Fallout looks to its highly anticipated return, the torch carried from Army of the Dead’s character dynamics sets the stage for powerful storytelling and impactful performances. The similarities between these series and films highlight the emotional core at the heart of Ella Purnell’s characters, promising a second season shaped by darkness, courage, and poignant decision-making. What unfolds for Lucy MacLean may not just define the show’s legacy but also reframe the way such post-apocalyptic narratives are remembered.
