In the opening level of Remedy Entertainment’s Quantum Break, players can find a strange tent with a lone television inside. Flicking the ‘on’ button reveals something stranger – a teaser for an upcoming Alan Wake game, starring two FBI agents, visions of a deranged killer, a dark trip through the woods, and an unfortunate murder. This trailer, launched in 2016, is a near-exact replica of the Alan Wake 2 trailer recently revealed in the PlayStation Showcase.
It even reveals major story beats withheld from its mysterious successor – which may count as story spoilers for the upcoming game.
NOTE: Potential story spoilers for Alan Wake 2 will be discussed in this article. Do not read on if you wish to avoid fan theories and early reveals ahead of the game’s launch on 17 October 2022.
The 2016 trailer for Alan Wake begins with a familiar phrase: ‘It’s not a lake, it’s an ocean.’ As players will remember, this references the vast strength of the evil Dark Presence that torments Alan and the town of Bright Falls in the original 2010 game.
Then, the trailer introduces two FBI agents discussing Alan’s disappearance, and his connection to a range of other circumstances – a ‘flood of darkness’ and ‘reality hacks’. On a poster board, we see pictures of Alice Wake, Barry Wheeler, and Emil Hartman, all of whom played a role in Alan Wake.
But perhaps the most intriguing part of this reveal is the names of the two detectives. If you peer at their name badges, you’ll note the woman in the teaser is named ‘Saga Anderson’. Meanwhile, Remedy developer Sam Lake (who is also the face of Max Payne) is playing ‘Alex Casey’.
Let’s start with Saga Anderson. As of a recent reveal, we now know she is the secondary protagonist of Alan Wake 2, and likely the person who rescues Alan from Cauldron Lake. In the original teaser, she was played by a different actress before Melanie Liburd (This Is Us, The Idol) was cast.
Read: Saga Anderson is the co-protagonist of Alan Wake 2
Anderson and Casey are depicted as partners in this teaser, investigating the strange goings-on in Bright Falls. They stumble upon a body together – and later, a spectral vision of a deranged Alan Wake appears before Casey. Anderson is then seen wandering alone, before she comes across the body of Casey, who joins the investigation wall as a victim.
From then on, Anderson is seen investigating alone, spurred by the death of her partner. Later in the teaser, she comes across Wake – but it may not be the same one who murdered Casey.
As a brief note, the conclusion of Alan Wake and its American Nightmare spin-off chapter revealed that an ‘evil’ doppelgänger of Alan Wake had been brought to life by rumour and hearsay in Bright Falls, following the character’s disappearance beneath Cauldron Lake. This version, known as ‘Mr. Scratch‘ escapes into the real world with murderous intention, and he taunts Alan throughout the events of American Nightmare.
Given the clues in this teaser, we can assume Anderson and Casey were on the hunt for Mr. Scratch and/or the bodies he left in his wake, with Casey eventually running afoul of this unhinged clone.
There is another twist in this plot, however – as Alex Casey is a fictional character within Alan Wake‘s world. In the game’s story, Casey is the star of Wake’s most famous crime novel series. He’s written as an in-universe version of Remedy’s Max Payne, and as noted, is also played by Sam Lake.
To understand this twist, it’s important to remember how the Dark Presence in Alan Wake operates. It’s a disembodied force that requires a human host to grow stronger, as it feeds off creativity and imagination. When Wake is ‘touched’ by the darkness, he realises an ability to write reality into existence, and while he is largely manipulated by the Dark Presence into writing its version of reality, it has been implied that Wake can use this ability for himself.
During the events of Control‘s AWE DLC, clues presented in visions reveal he may have aided the creation of protagonist Jesse Faden, by writing her a strong character arc that led to her developing telekinetic powers.
Given this example, we can assume Wake has written Casey into reality, as a means to motivate his partner, Saga Anderson, to investigate Bright Falls further, eventually leading to Wake being (presumably) saved from the darkness beneath Cauldron Lake. This act may actually kickstart the dark adventure of Alan Wake 2.
While the Quantum Break-era Alan Wake 2 teaser was first released in 2016, and much may have changed since this wild early reveal, Remedy Entertainment has built up a strong, shared universe over several years. Nothing is accidental – and everything the studio creates is tied together by some unique thread.
Should this trailer relate directly to Alan Wake 2, we expect many of the same story tidbits and reveals within this teaser will be drawn out and explored further in the upcoming game.
We’ll likely learn just how much this sequel ties back into Quantum Break when it launches for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5 on 17 October 2023. In the meantime, there’s plenty of scope for wild speculation and deep investigation into Remedy’s connected universe.
