Everything you need to know about Fallout’s rising star Xelia Mendes-Jones: ‘Your local trans guy’
Xelia Mendes-Jones plays non-binary Aspirant Dane in Fallout (Amazon Prime Video)
Amazon Prime’s Fallout is one of the hottest shows on any streaming service at the moment, with long-time gamers and post-apocalyptic fantasy fans uniting to celebrate its release.
All eight episodes of Fallout, which is based on the video game of the same name, are now streaming on Amazon Prime and trans actor Xelia Mendes-Jones is making waves as non-binary character Dane.
Dane is a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, an Aspirant, who is chosen to serve the Knight Titus. Dane only features in a handful of the show’s episodes and is only the third non-binary character in Fallout‘s history.
Dane is officially described by showrunners as: “a confident and eager Initiate of the Brotherhood of Steel, and Maximus‘s closest peer. They believe in the mission of the Brotherhood and dream of one day suiting up as a Knight.“
In the first episode of the hit show, Dane is injured and Maximus takes their place as Titus’s Squire, prompting many to ask “did Maximus hurt Dane?”… but you’ll have you watch the whole series to get an answer.
Dane has been taken by fans to be non-binary due to the fact the show description uses “they” as a pronoun. This therefore makes them the third known non-binary Fallout character, following Orlando and Burke.
What pronouns does Xelia Mendes-Jones use?
Mendes-Jones uses he/they pronouns and has been very vocal about his preference to ensure that their fans can refer to him correctly.
Earlier this year, they posted on Instagram that he “only really use(s) he/they now” and that “if you still refer to [them] as female, that’s on you at this stage”. In his Instagram bio he also refers to himself as “your local trans guy”.
What else has Xelia Mendes-Jones appeared in?
Of course, Mendes-Jones is being hailed for his portrayal of Dane in Fallout but you may also recognise them from another Amazon Prime Video output: The Wheel of Time.
They appeared in four episodes of The Wheel of Time as the character Renna, with one fan describing Mendes-Jones’ portrayal as “cruel, focused, and arrogant”.
Prior to The Wheel of Time, Mendes-Jones was best known for portraying Janet in an episode of the TV series Sans Comic.
They are due to appear as the character Johnny in the film Havoc, due out later this year, alongside Tom Hardy, Timothy Olyphant, and Forest Whitaker.
Havoc has been described as a thriller, which follows a “bruised detective” forced to “fight his way through the criminal underworld to rescue a politician’s estranged son, unraveling a deep web of corruption and conspiracy that ensnares his entire city”, according to IMDB. There has been no word as to who Mendes-Jones plays or what their connection will be to Hardy’s character.
Mendes-Jones also appeared in a music video for Romy’s ‘She’s On My Mind’ in 2023, playing a couple with Game of Thrones‘ Maisie Williams.
How have Fallout fans reacted to Xelia Mendes-Jones and his portrayal of Dane?
Fans have been very pleased to see the representation of a “canonically trans character” in Fallout, played by an actor who is actually trans.
One person on Reddit wrote: “I wasn’t able to find much info on whether they intended to cast a trans actor of it they show runners wrote the character around Mendes-Jones, but even so, just having an actor who’s actually trans is a huge step.”
“[Dane is] exactly the type of positive representation we need,” they wrote, adding that they are “grateful” to the show runners.
Another said that Fallout is “one of the few game series that has had some form of LGBTQ+ representation dating back to the first game and this has only grown with each new entry”.
