Matt Berry's Dual Roles in Fallout Reveal a Popular Character's Origin

The following contains spoilers for Fallout Season 1, now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Amazon Prime Video’s Fallout series is growing to be one of the top television shows of 2024, and likely the best video game adaptation of the year. Its attention to the lore by both respecting and expanding it has been at the center of fans’ and critics’ focus, and tiny Easter eggs like a Vault-Tec phone number viewers can call have been a blast to interact with. One thing that’s also worth taking notice of is the cameos, two of which feature actor and comedian Matt Berry.

Most people probably recognize Berry from What We Do In the Shadows as Laszlo Cravensworth, a fashionable vampire with a taste for the fine arts. He’s also provided his voice for several franchises and television series, the most recent of which being 8D8 in The Book of Boba Fett. Being an accomplished actor with several voices under his belt, it’s no surprise that Fallout wanted to use his gift to bring one of its most lovable game characters to life. Ironically, it’s also a robot, like his role in The Book of Boba Fett.

Matt Berry Voices Mr. Handy (AKA Codsworth)

Stephen Russell Provides the Voice of Codsworth in Fallout 4

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Lucy MacLean (actor Ella Purcell) in a blue jumpsuit in a vault in Fallout TV series

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Matt Berry’s first appearance in Prime Video’s Fallout is actually in the very first episode as Mr. Handy, a robotic helper that’s catering for a child’s birthday party. It’s not until Season 1, Episode 4, “The Ghouls,” that Berry lends his voice again, this time for a Mr. Handy robot named Snip-Snip. The Ghoul kidnaps Lucy and takes him to Snip-Snip in an old abandoned mall, where she initially believes that she was sold into sex slavery. Snip-Snip amusingly refutes her claim in shock, correcting her that she was actually sold to harvest her organs. Lucy breaks Snip-Snip in order to escape her predicament, but it wasn’t Berry’s last appearance on the show.

Players of the games, particularly of Fallout 4, will recognize Snip-Snip and the Mr. Handy caterer’s design. The series did an impressive job of replicating the design of the Mr. Handy robots from the video game universe. These robots were considered normal pieces of technology prior to the catastrophic Great War, as the nukes dropped in 2077 during a technologically advanced but conflict-ridden time. Mr. Handy was created as a line of domestic and maintenance robots by General Atomics International, and became sophisticated in the 2070s thanks to RobCo Industries. Their equipment appears to be resistant to nuclear weapons, as many can be found in the post-apocalyptic Wasteland.

The Mr. Handy robot that players know the most is Codsworth (voiced by Stephen Russell), one of the companions that knew the Sole Survivor prior to the bombs. Codsworth was the family’s domestic model who was skilled at cooking, childcare and cleaning, but was left behind when evacuations started. The Sole Survivor wakes up after 210 years from their cryogenic state, and finds Codsworth has been waiting for the family at the house all this time. Codsworth didn’t play a gigantic role throughout the entire game, but players fell in love with his infinite loyalty to the family.

Matt Berry Appears Again as Sebastian Leslie

Fallout Expands the Background of Codsworth and Other Mr. Handy Robots

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Viewers may have thought they heard the last of Berry’s voice, but the English actor makes another appearance in Episode 6, “The Trap,” this time, in a live-action role. At a house party where he sticks out like a sore thumb (pun unintentionally referring to Fallout’s signature symbol), Howard Cooper talks to an old friend named Sebastian Leslie out on the lawn in his Fallout flashback storyline. Berry is decked out in a yellow suit as Sebastian, perfectly fitted for the world’s refusal to move on from the 1950s’ retro aesthetic.

The two share a banter over the current face of Hollywood and how it’s slowly yielding its power to big tech corporations like Vault-Tec and General Atomics International. It’s no coincidence that Berry plays two different roles, one as a voice actor and another as a physical actor. Sebastian tells Howard that he sold the rights to his voice likeness to General Atomics International, for the sole purpose of using it for their Mr. Handy line of robots. For his contribution, he was extremely underpaid and only received a personal Mr. Handy after negotiation. Of course, he was freaked out by hearing his own voice in the robot, just as anyone else would.

Fallout’s ability to subtly make big revelations in its canon universe has been nothing short of brilliant in its first season. Blowing the reveal that Vault-Tec was behind the bombs into a disruptive minute of time is appropriate, considering the magnitude it adds to the canon and fundamentally alters the plot of every character. But little reveals like Codsworth’s voice being an actor’s likeness is innocently pleasurable. It doesn’t drastically change the canon for better or worse, but widens the scope of the lore.

Codsworth Isn’t the Only Character to Get a Surprising Origin Story

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Fallout didn’t stop at the origins of the Mr. Handy robots. The first season also gives a name to the Vault Boy, the signature cartoon mascot that is the unanimous icon for the Fallout brand. Vault Boy is most recognizable by his blue and yellow vault suit, blonde hair, eager smile and giving the “thumbs-up” gesture. As the TV show spells out in the first episode, the thumbs-up isn’t as playful as it is in the real world. It’s a demoralizing gesture that soldiers used to determine the jeopardizing nature of a bomb. If the mushroom cloud is smaller than a person’s thumb, then there’s time to get to safety. If the cloud is bigger than the thumb, there’s no point in running because it’ll kill everyone.

Flashbacks show Howard Cooper as the original Vault Boy, having been employed by Vault-Tec with the help of his wife, who was an executive for the company. Cooper did the commercials for the company, advertised its state-of-the-art vaults, and became its poster boy, all while in the unknown that Vault-Tec was organizing the end of the world. Ironically, Cooper would become a legend for different reasons in the Wasteland. His transformation into a Ghoul searching for his wife and daughter fueled his hate for Vault-Tec even more.

It’s finally nice to see a video game adaptation have fun with its own material to expand the lore, rather than fall under its own expectations. One of the benefits of Fallout is that it’s only based on the world, and not a particular character or story. The show has the freedom to use Matt Berry in an actor-robot duel role because it has no limitations. Likewise, there’s no harm in giving its most universally known icon a tragic backstory. Fallout doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it makes for an innovative expansion of the apocalyptic lore.

Fallout Season 1 is available to stream on Prime Video. A second season is in development.

Fallout TV Show New Poster

Fallout

In a future, post-apocalyptic Los Angeles brought about by nuclear decimation, citizens must live in underground bunkers to protect themselves from radiation, mutants and bandits.

Release DateApril 10, 2024Creator(s)Geneva Robertson-DworetCastAaron Moten, Xelia Mendes-Jones, Kyle MacLachlan, Walton Goggins, Johnny Pemberton, Moises Arias, Ella PurnellMain GenreSci-FiGenresDrama, Sci-Fi, Action, AdventureSeasons1Production CompanyAmazon Studios, Kilter Films, Bethesda Game StudiosWritersGeneva Robertson-DworetNumber of Episodes8DirectorsJonathan Nolan