Walton Goggins Talks Using Son As Inspiration For The Ghoul Voice Acting In Bethesda’s ‘Fallout 76: Burning Springs’
Exclusive:Irradiated worlds have collided in Bethesda's latest Fallout 76 expansion, Burning Springs . Amongst the sandy plains of the Burning Springs region and throngs of raiders and ruthless cap collectors is Prime Video's Fallout character, The Ghoul (Walton Goggins).
Though the Prime Video TV series and the video games share continuity, the show tends to stay in its own lane, either complementing or adding to the overall lore of the source material. However, due to the popularity of the character, this marks the first in-game tie-in between both properties.
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Regarding the reprisal of his role from the series in voice and likeness, Goggins described his son Augustus, an avid gamer, as the inspiration that helped him distinguish between filming and voice acting. "Voice recording is palpably different than being captured on film," he said in Bethesda's video interview. "What I didn't realize is … I don't think about my facial expressions or my voice. I don't really think about anything when I'm working in front of a camera; [my performance is] just something being photographed that way. Whenever you're in a booth, you have to, in some ways, do what you do organically with your body [to] your voice. I just chose to imagine the person playing the game, in the sense that, my son is a gamer. And I thought about speaking to him and what he would like to hear. I know how he cackles, I know how he feels whenever he's communicating with someone or a voice in a game that plays. So, I just thought about him to be quite honest."
This also marks the first time players can become ghouls themselves in the mainline story. In the Fallout game universe, non-playable ghouls are former humans so affected by radiation that they become disfigured and gain heightened abilities, alongside being immune to radiation sickness. Some ghouls lose their humanity, while others become more violent shells of their former selves, attacking the wasteland creatures and the player. "I just think that is so cool," Goggins said. "I love Easter eggs in stories. I love Easter eggs in our story. I love stories that come back around on themselves, and the idea of someone dressed up as the Ghoul playing Fallout 76 with me as the Ghoul – let's just say my son is going to be the most popular kid in school."
In the game, The Ghoul can be found as a non-playable character in Burning Springs' The Last Resort saloon in Highway Town, dishing out two types bounty hunt experiences: Grunt Hunts are free, solo-friendly, smaller bounties that offer minimal rewards, while Head Hunts cost caps and require great effort as you fight larger enemies for a richer item harvest at the end.
The constant assigning of challenging, new bounties should no doubt keep players busy until the arrival of Fallout Season 3 which starts filming in May .
Watch the video interview with Goggins above to learn more about the actor's process of getting into character.
Released in December 2025, Fallout 76: Burning Springs is a free update expansion available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
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