‘Fallout’ Season 2: Who Is Justin Theroux’s Robert House?

He is brilliant. He is savvy. He is the wealthiest man on the planet. He knows how to safeguard a desert oasis from an incoming nuclear strike. And he occasionally demonstrates a striking indifference toward human life. But who, exactly, is Fallout‘s Robert House?

Based on the post-apocalyptic video game franchise of the same name by Bethesda Game Studios, Season 2 of Prime Video’s Fallout takes viewers to New Vegas, the fan-favorite setting defined by its lawless politics, warring factions, and high-stakes choices. Though it only loosely resembles a functioning society, New Vegas is ruled by one man: Robert House, an enigmatic figure who is a robotics expert, a mathematician, a casino tycoon, and a self-appointed guardian intent on reshaping the Wasteland according to his own vision, all under the personal credo that “the House always wins.”

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In the game Fallout: New Vegas, Mr. House was credited with preserving Sin City through an intricate series of defensive measures he had devised. His extensive preparations and innovations elevated him to extraordinary wealth and influence. Aware that his physical body would not sustain his long-term ambitions, he secured the means to ensure his continued presence and maintain control over the empire he had built.

But who was this shadowy mastermind behind New Vegas?

Justin Theroux steps into the role of Robert House, a part he snagged thanks to his buddy, Walton Goggins, who plays Cooper Howard/The Ghoul. “I said, ‘He’s the guy,’ and started the ball rolling. I gave him a call and vouched for the experience. It’ll be the two of us, and I think we could do something really special with it. We had the time of our life.”

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To get into the role, Theroux studied the gameplay of Fallout to understand House, an ambiguous figure in its vast dystopian universe. “Any sort of analog that you would try and create with another character, like, ‘Oh, what’s his personal life like? What’s his family like? Does he have a wife?’ Those kinds of questions are sort of immediately off the table,” explained Theroux. “You don’t really have any answers to those, and you don’t really need them.”

“So you have to find a sort of toehold in how to play them. What does he care about? What does he want? And, fortunately, we have any number of billionaires in the real world who have technology that they are deploying on the population. And so I sort of found that as the toehold in, which is, ‘Oh, he’s just a guy that really believes in the things that he makes,'” said Theroux.

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“He doesn’t have to burden himself with anything other than his own specific industry. And I really liked that. So that was fun to sort of realize that he’s just in that incredibly rarefied billionaire air where he meets no resistance from anyone,” continued Theroux. “I don’t think he takes human beings into account the way you or I would. He’s sort of a McNamara in that respect.”

Indeed, Theroux’s comparison of the Wasteland’s indifferent genius to Robert McNamara — the former U.S. Secretary of Defense known for applying a highly quantitative, data-driven management strategy to the Vietnam War — was not a casual one. It underscores the character’s calculated pragmatism and the unsettling efficiency with which he views human outcomes. And Theroux was not the only person to find House’s cold utilitarianism both off-putting and slightly familiar.

“I won’t say who, but we know a number of figures in the world right now that are similar to Robert House,” Goggins said. “Let’s call it Howard Hughes. Let’s just play that safe. [House is] one of the most well-known people in the world.”

As Prime Video’s Fallout expands into the stark disarray and madness of New Vegas, Theroux’s portrayal anchors Robert House as something more than a video game icon: He is a reflection of the modern technocrats who shape society from behind closed doors. The result is a character who is as unsettling as he is fascinating.

Fallout, Season 2 Premiere, Wednesday, December 17, Prime Video