Is That Max Payne in the Alan Wake 2 Trailer? Not Quite

ign.com:

You might have wondered why the latest Alan Wake 2 trailer, fresh from Opening Night Live 2023, includes a glimpse at a character who looks like Max Payne.

The character in question is Alex Casey, the FBI partner of one of Alan Wake 2’s playable characters, Saga Anderson. Both Alex and Saga arrive in Bright Falls to investigate mysterious murders. Developer Remedy has shown off Casey in previous videos, but in the gamescom 2023 video we see a different side - and look - to the character.

I’m calling this now, if this is a nod to Max Payne I swear I’m gonna freak. @SamLakeRMD @remedygames @alanwake pic.twitter.com/O3jx2eTr0Y

This alternative version of Alex Casey we see in the trailer looks like Max Payne from Remedy’s famous action series, complete with trademark hard-boiled detective outfit. So what’s going on here? Has Remedy crossed the streams sufficiently to have Max Payne pop up in its own Alan Wake game? The answer is... not quite.

The Alex Casey we spot in the trailer is the version of Alex Casey from the Dark Place, the nightmarish world in which Alan Wake himself is trapped following the events of the first game. This is very much a deep meta play on Remedy’s part. One of Alan Wake's own works was of a series of Alex Casey novels, and now the character is brought to life in Alan Wake 2. We can speculate that the Alex Casey in the Dark Place is the Alex Casey plucked from Alan Wake’s imagination for the Alex Casey novels.

The layers go even deeper. Alex Casey's model is based on Remedy creative chief Sam Lake, who was also the body model for Max Payne. And in-game, Alex is voiced by James McCaffrey, who also voiced Max Payne. Still with us? The upshot is: the Dark Place version of Alex Casey is a clear reference to