Norm’s decision is certainly a welcome surprise to audiences eager to dig deeper into the story of Vault 31. It’s also, it turns out, a welcome surprise to the actor playing norm.
“Of course [not being in season 2] crossed my mind but it was definitely something I was hoping not to read in that first script,” Arias tells Den of Geek. “I was very happy being able to discover what he actually does because I also had questions – I also was on the edge of my seat, wondering how he’d survive Vault 31. It’s very exciting that he does the unthinkable and has found a way to, perhaps, get out of this vault.”
Of course, springing the junior execs from their icy slumber now means that Norm has to deal with the most terrifying force in the Fallout universe: middle management. How he will convince “Bud’s Buds” to follow his lead will be one of season 2’s biggest challenges.
“I think he balances leadership and deceptiveness quite well as he goes,” Arias says. “That’s the only way he’s going to convince these ‘super managers’ that he is the hyper, super biological species of a manger that they are all waiting for. Of course, none of that is true. He’s learning on the fly how to lead but at the same time how to balance power.”
With Lucy, the idealist; Hank, the villain; and Norm, the survivor; The MacLean family continues to lead the narrative way in Fallout season 2. Given the show’s new California filming location to affect a New Vegas desert landscape, the actors behind the MacLean family don’t get to spend as much time together. Still, the bonds they built in season 1 continues to manifest in some distinct familiar traits.
“The first season was shot in New York. We all met up a little bit more just because most of us aren’t from there, and we’re in the same general area,” Arias says. “But now with the second season being shot in California, a lot of us are from here and it’s a much vaster city so it was harder to get together. When we did there wasn’t talk about work for the most part. But there was definitely excitement about what we had just read.”
