Kyle MacLachlan On Hank’s Plan In Fallout Season 2 & Villain Debate

Kyle MacLachlan’s Hank is back in Fallout season 2, but whether or not he’s a villain is up for debate in the eyes of the two-time Emmy nominee. Played by the Twin Peaks vet, the MacLean family patriarch served as the Overseer of Vault 33, who was kidnapped by the mysterious Moldaver. Fallout season 1’s ending revealed that Hank was actually a Vault-Tec exec who had a hand in planning The Great War that brought about the nuclear apocalypse and Wasteland.

While Fallout season 2 will see Ella Purnell’s Lucy and Walton Goggins’ The Ghoul chasing Hank to New Vegas, it will also see the return of Moisés Arias’ Norm, who was last seen trapped in Vault 31 and apparently forced to enter a cryosleep tube. However, after narrowly escaping, the younger MacLean sibling will not only strive to warn his friends of the dangers of other Vaults, but also learn more about his father and Vault-Tec’s other devious plans.

Ahead of the show’s premiere, ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan interviewed Kyle MacLachlan and Moisés Arias to discuss Fallout season 2. When asked about going from being a doting father to one of the show’s main villains of the series, the Emmy nominee acknowledged that “he’s done some very naughty things,” but questioned whether Hank is fully a villain, as he is “warm,” “charming” and “does have a family that he cares about.”

However, as MacLachlan points out, “he also has a mission,” which is “what drives him” more so than his family. As such, coming into Fallout season 2, the star teases that “he’s picking up” the pieces of the plan he put on hold in the years prior, and that “he’s got this idea” that he’s going full force on:

Kyle MacLachlan: He has a history with people and he’s got a background. He wants to avenge these people.” So I think part of that is being able to play both of those things, which they’ve allowed me to do. The writers are just fantastic at the show.

Norm & Hank’s Potential Reunion Won’t Be Pretty

ScreenRant: And then for you, when we left you, you’re trapped. What’s he going to do? But also, I think we see this shift. I’ve seen a few episodes, so I’m happy to hold anything we want to talk about, but we kind of see this shift of him almost coming into his own in a way. In the first season, I feel like Norm was kind of getting all the clues together. So, what would you say his mindset is this season?

Moisés Arias: Well, now he’s been in the Vault for two or three weeks with little food and water, let’s say. He is asking the brain on the Roomba, “How was my father like?” Sort of the last breaths that he’s got, the last consciousness before he starts going loopy. I think that all those conversations and situations put him in a position where he has one irrational idea that is the only option, and now has to lead a group of vault dwellers.

ScreenRant: Yes. If or when these two reunite, how do you think it’ll go?

Moisés Arias: Luckily, Norm’s not very physical. [Laughs]

Kyle MacLachlan: It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be tough. We’ll appeal to the common sense. Norm is sensical. “This is the reasoning. This is why it’s done.” You’ll understand intellectually why I did what I did.

Moisés Arias: Sure. [Chuckles]

ScreenRant: Lastly, I want to ask, talking about season 1, we hope this is great. We already know there’s a Fallout season 3 in the works. What is it like for you guys interacting with the fans and just really being embraced in this world?

Kyle MacLachlan: It’s really nice, because I feel like they’re validating what I think was so important to us in the beginning, which was to honor the world, honor the game, honor the world within the game, and then create a story on top of it that’s compelling. We’ve got extraordinary writers, creators, and a great cast that has brought all that to life. So, it’s right at the moment, we’re in a really good place.

Moisés Arias: I agree. We’re learning things almost as quickly as you guys are. I personally was week by week, waiting to see what we were doing next. I think all that helps, because I’m discovering as quickly as Norm is what he’s doing, and what these vaults mean to him, and how they came to be. I think that’s part of the video games, and the fans witnessing that with the characters and the actors experiencing that with the development of the characters, I think is how there’s a formula for how it comes together.

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