Alan Wake 2: The Lake House Star Explains Why Remedy Is Special

The final expansion of Alan Wake 2, The Lake House, is out now, closing a chapter for Remedy that was 13 years in the making. In The Lake House, players assume the role of Agent Kiran Estevez as she investigates the titular Federal Bureau of Control satellite station following a disturbance. The high strangeness of Remedy’s Control mixes with the horror of Alan Wake 2, giving the expansion the feeling of both an epilogue and a prologue, as the studio continues to build out its connected universe, the RCU.

I recently caught up with the DLC’s star, Janina Gavankar, whom you may know from things like Star Wars Battlefront 2 and True Blood. Gavankar explained what she loves about working with Remedy, why she’s hoping to do it again soon, and whether we can expect to see her in Control’s sequel.

“I’ve been stalking Remedy and Sam [Lake] for eight years,” Gavankar said. “Quantum Break was my first Remedy game, and I loved it so much. I found all three acts of [in-universe movie script] Time Knife, and I invited some of the cast over, and I made a soundboard so I could play effects, and I streamed a live reading of it. I think that’s when Sam and other people at Remedy realized, ‘Oh, she’s like us.'”

From the outside, it seems like many collaborators have become lifelong friends of the studio. Quantum Break’s Shawn Ashmore, for example, is always rooting for the studio online. Why is it that Remedy creates these bonds with so many who come into the company’s orbit? “Everybody goes into Remedy and comes out even more invested than when they started. You’re seeing that over and over,” she told me. “I’m lucky to call Sam a close friend now. He’s just as wonderful as he is weird […] At this point, I have starred in major releases. I have been consulting at both independent and triple-A studios for over half a decade.

“And every organism is different. You, as a reporter, know that; you can feel that. You’ve talked to them all, and I’ve worked for them all,” Gavankar continued. “So, when you come upon a company like Remedy, that has a maestro, you can feel it. The lucky thing, in this case, is that the maestro is a good person and still so enthusiastic and energetic about working with artists–he’s not a star f***er. I’ve been around those guys, too, and they’re talented, sure, but you can tell the difference between somebody who is chasing Hollywood and someone who’s really an auteur in the medium that matters the most, which, to me, is games.”

Given Agent Estevez is an FBC agent, she seems well-suited to be in the previously announced Control sequel. On top of that, Remedy clearly enjoys working with the same collaborators repeatedly, with actors such as Matthew Poretta, Shawn Ashmore, Courtney Hope, and the late, great James McCaffrey all having worked on multiple Remedy games, sometimes spanning several decades. It sure does seem like we could see Estevez again. Gavankar couldn’t confirm my theory, but she liked the idea very much.

“Please say all of that to Sam. Did you talk to him yet? Please tell him all of that,” she joked. “Tell him how perfectly seamlessly she fits into everything. I agree.”

With her character mixed up in the RCU, I asked Gavankar how much she tries to make sense of it all or whether she focuses merely on Estevez’s role and leaves the theory-crafting for others. “Oh, it all makes sense to me. But also, as a writer, I write high strangeness as well. So we get along very well, me and Remedy. I don’t flinch at any of these things,” she told me, echoing a Stephen King quote heard in the opening moments of 2010’s Alan Wake vouching for the “unexplained mystery.”

“As an artist, you don’t want to explain everything away–like those Ending Explained videos, I hate them because [they take] away any agency from the audience members. It’s okay to believe that your audience is smart enough to figure it out for themselves. Also, it might fit somewhere in their human experience in a way that you didn’t intend, and that is so much more important than explaining what your point was.”

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Alan Wake 2’s The Lake House expansion is out now and marks the last story update for the game. Along with the previous expansion, Night Springs, it’s included in the Deluxe Edition, which is finally available as a physical release.

Though a sequel to Control is in development, the next game from Remedy is FBC: Firebreak, a three-player co-op PvE game set in the Remedy Connected Universe.