The most widely believed theory as to why there’s a version of Robert House that appears in public during pre-war flashbacks, and then a separate version of the character played by Justin Theroux is that the production wanted to recast the character but decided to provide an in-universe reason for doing so, so they gave the engimatic House a body double.

This could plausibly be spun into a potential way that House could have survived New Vegas even if the Courier murdered him. However, there’s another theory floating around that’s even more conspiratorial.

Dopplegangers, Brothers And Deception

A couple of discerning fans have suggested that Justin Theroux’s character might not be Robert House at all. They suspect that Theroux is playing the other “Mr. House” — Anthony House, the owner of H&H Tools Company. This is partially driven by the character’s introductory scene, where he constantly references a model of nail gun from H&H.

Anthony is the extremely paranoid half-brother of Robert House who cut his half-sibling out of the H&H Tools Company after their father’s death. In Fallout: New Vegas, you can visit H&H and read Anthony’s ramblings. He eventually lost his mind completely and isolated himself inside the H&H factory, or so the story goes.

It would be an interesting bait-and-switch, and the show’s promotional material refers to Theroux as “Mr. House” and not necessarily Robert House. However, there’s always a chance that House referenced the nail gun because his father previously ran H&H, and Robert grew up in that environment of innovation.

Hank MacLean’s allusion to House surviving every scenario appears to be an on-the-nose reference to game canon, and could be teasing how House might’ve escaped the wrath of the Courier.

We’ll have to wait and see how the season develops, but it’s already clear that House is a focal point of the season and everyone is excited to find out more.