A new Control dev diary reveals a surprise addition to the cast

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Remedy's upcoming Control is a third-person shooter about the Federal Bureau of Control, a secretive government agency dedicated to investigating, containing, and controlling supernatural phenomena—a bit like FEAR, I suppose, but more of a spy org than a military unit. Today the studio released a new dev diary video examining two of the game's central characters: Jesse Faden, the new director of the FBC, and her predecessor, Zachariah Trench.

Trench, voiced by James McCaffrey, is an fairly typical hardass with a reputation as a "man of action" who may bear some vague behavioral resemblance to the first character McCaffrey voice for Remedy.

"What if this kind of characters is then pushed up the ladder and ends up as the director in a place like this?" creative director Sam Lake asks in the video. "[He's] had to make compromises, has had to make questionable choices along the way, and he's growing tired—and clearly failing, in the sense that when we start the game, something has gone horribly, horribly wrong."

That's where Faden comes in. Played by Courtney Hope, who portrayed Beth Wilder in Quantum Break, Faden is familiar and comfortable with the weirdness she encounters in the Oldest House, and far more suited to taking it on without compromising herself or her fellow agents.

"She's not ruthless in disregard to humanity, and I think that's the biggest difference. She's not just like the badass that's like, 'Screw you, I'm gonna kill you'—it's like, 'I really don't want to do this but I know if I don't, then the rest of humanity, it's gonna be—it's like a contagion, and it just spreads'," Hope says.

"Because she's seen so much weird in her life, she's at home when she walks into the Oldest House."

There's a nice little surprise at the end of the video when Lake reveals that a third major character in Control, FBC head of research Dr. Casper Darling, will be voiced by Matthew Porretta—the actor who previously portrayed Alan Wake. He didn't say anything about the character himself, though, except to note that he plays a "key role."

Control is currently expected to be ready for release sometime in 2019.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.