The hunt for a new actor to replace Clint Eastwood as the Man With No Name in the remake of A Fistful of Dollars continues, but one science fiction show might have singled out the next Western legend. A remake of A Fistful of Dollars was confirmed recently, though the project is still in its early days. While it’s still a long way off, the remake will soon need to pick a new actor to play Clint Eastwood’s greatest Western character, the Man With No Name.
The problem with recasting the Man With No Name is that Clint Eastwood was simply perfect for the role. The actor who takes the reins in the remake of A Fistful of Dollars will likely never be able to top his performance, and only the best of the best could come close to being as good as Eastwood. There are plenty of capable candidates for the role, from Western stars like Timothy Olyphant to Clint Eastwood’s own son, Scott Eastwood. One actor recently threw his (cowboy) hat into the ring in an unorthodox way: through a science fiction TV show based on a video game.
Fallout Proved Walton Goggins Can Play The Man With No Name
Walton Goggins recently starred in Fallout, a show about survivors of a nuclear apocalypse. He played Cooper Howard, a former movie star who was turned into an immortal and heavily irradiated person known as the Ghoul. Fallout is thoroughly sci-fi – it focuses on the effects of radiation, high-tech weaponry, and cold fusion – but Goggins’ character was pure cowboy. The Ghoul was such a great gunslinger that Fallout basically proved Walton Goggins would be perfect as the Man With No Name. Even with all of its science fiction, Fallout gave Goggins a chance to display every skill he would need to take over for Eastwood.
Cooper Howard starred in Western movies before the apocalypse, and the Ghoul dropped the act and became a real-life gunslinger in the world of Fallout. Their profession wasn’t the only thing that linked the Ghoul to the Man With No Name, though. They also played essentially the same role: both the Ghoul and the Man With No Name were dangerous and mysterious outsiders who, despite their rough exterior and questionable first motives, ultimately wanted to help the people around them. Fallout was essentially an audition for A Fistful of Dollars, and Walton Goggins gave a tremendous performance.
Walton Goggins Has A Long History With Westerns Before Fallout
While Fallout brought Walton Goggins’ skill in the Western genre back into recent memory, it’s far from the first time the actor has played a cowboy. Goggins has an extensive filmography of Western movies and shows, and he’s arguably one of the most prolific Western actors in the modern day. From playing supporting roles in movies like The Hateful Eight to taking the main villain role in a years-long series like Justified, Goggins has more than proven himself as a Western star. With so much experience in the genre, it’s hard to find someone more qualified to star in A Fistful of Dollars.
Though Walton Goggins has more than enough experience to justify casting him as t he Man With No Name, Fallout still might be the best example of how well he could do in the role. Many of Goggins’ previous Western roles cast him as either an outright villain or, at the very least, as a slimy secondary character. In Fallout, however, Goggins proved he could lead a project and play a morally gray hero. Goggins’ time as the Ghoul may even be able to bring something to the remake of A Fistful of Dollars that none of his other projects could.
Walton Goggins Could Use The Ghoul To Update A Fistful Of Dollars
The decision to remake A Fistful of Dollars has proven controversial. It’s the beginning of the Dollars trilogy, the first time Clint Eastwood became the Man With No Name, and an all-time classic Western movie. It didn’t seem like there was any reason to remake it – it’s already a nearly perfect movie. The remake will have to justify its existence, and one of the ways it could do that is by adding something substantial to A Fistful of Dollars or the Man With No Name. Luckily, his experience as the Ghoul would give Walton Goggins the perfect way to add to such a legendary character.
The remake of A Fistful of Dollars could take a page from Fallout’s book and create essentially two separate characters played by the same actor: the Man With No Name, and the man he was before he donned the serape.
A big reason the Man With No Name is such a legend is because he’s so mysterious: he appears, he helps whoever needs helping, he reveals nothing about himself or his past, and he walks away. It’s incredibly compelling, and it turned him into a mythical figure, but it probably can’t be done again. The character already has a history, and no one – not even Goggins – can fully live up to Eastwood. What Goggins can do, however, and what Fallout proved was possible, is give the Man With No Name a backstory that doesn’t detract from his mystique.
The Ghoul’s backstory in Fallout was shown through Cooper Howard, the man he used to be. Giving the Ghoul that backstory made him much more compelling than he would have been as a simple gunslinger: it made him a tragic and empathetic character. It also didn’t detract from his mystique, however, mostly because of Goggins’ stellar performance in both roles. The fact that Goggins could make the Ghoul into such a compelling and mysterious gunslinger even with such a fleshed out backstory proves he could do the same for the Man With No Name.
Exploring the backstory of the Man With No Name may be a controversial idea, but it could be done quite well. The remake of A Fistful of Dollars could take a page from Fallout’s book and create essentially two separate characters played by the same actor: the Man With No Name, and the man he was before he donned the serape. That would actually expand the myth surrounding him without ruining the things that are already so great. With Walton Goggins in the saddle, the remake of A Fistful of Dollars could explore an entirely new side of the Man With No Name.