Production designer Howard Cummings chose an abandoned shopping mall in the San Fernando Valley as the base for the Las Vegas Strip sequences in season two of "Fallout," which is based on the video game Fallout: New Vegas. The production built retro-futuristic Vegas facades within the existing structure rather than using VFX to create the setting.
Cummings and his team constructed most of the signs visible in the show, including a 27-foot Lucky 38 Resort and Casino sign that was placed in the abandoned mall set. An old Regal theater at the location, which resembled a casino from the game, was refaced with signage reading "Gomorrah." The control room where actor Walton Goggins' character confronts Robert House, played by Justin Theroux, was built as a practical set with 3D-printed monitors featuring LED screens and vintage televisions, allowing actors to move freely through the space.
The production filmed prewar flashback sequences first, then deliberately deteriorated the sets to depict the postwar landscape. Palm trees were made to appear dead, vehicles were rusted and destroyed, and sand was added to create a distressed appearance. The distant skyline was printed on large canvases with LED lighting added for nighttime scenes.
A second setting, the Freeside district, was filmed at an Old West town in Santa Clarita, California, which was also used for the HBO series "Westworld." Buildings there were refaced to match the game's appearance. According to Cummings, the Wrangler Casino and Silver Rush signs were added to the location, with an overpass between the two districts completed in post-production.
