With the increasing buzz around Alan Wake 2 leading up to its release, Remedy Entertainment has an opportunity to capitalize on the franchise's return to the popular gaming world by producing more novels based on the character and series. A series of tie-in novels based on Alan Wake 2 and the overall IP following its return after a 13-year wait would be the perfect way to keep up the current momentum for the series, while also allowing the studio to expand on its rich lore and world-building for any future or related Alan Wake projects.

Producing additional novels set in the world of Alan Wake would be especially fitting given the nature of the main character as an author. Remedy has previously declared its plan to have all its properties relate to each other under the banner of the "Remedy Connected Universe." This would include any additional cross-media content, which the studio is well-known for producing alongside and often inside its games.

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Alan Wake Should Have His Own Novel Series

Remedy has already produced multimedia content for Alan Wake. A tie-in novel based on the original game's events was published near its release in 2010. However, it differs in various minor ways, and is not generally considered official Alan Wake canon. There was also Bright Falls, a live action miniseries serving as a prequel of sorts, released around the same time. It expanded the world, if not the story, beyond the core of the game itself and introduced a number of interesting elements that could serve as inspirations going forward. Later in 2018, Remedy revealed that talks were in place for an Alan Wake TV adaption. Since mid-2022 though, there have been no further updates or developments on its status.

With so much existing source material to draw from, Remedy has a lot of potential directions to take if they do decide to create new Alan Wake novels. One interesting angle would be to have them written from Alan's point of view, perhaps even in his signature "style." Another would be to produce real world versions of Alan's Wake's "Alex Casey" series, the hard-boiled noir detective thrillers that the character is famous for writing in-universe as part of his backstory. Both possibilities would lend themselves well to enhancing the world of Alan Wake.

Latter Remedy titles contained multimedia components, like the live-action sequences in Quantum Break and Control. Notably in Quantum Break, these were 22-minute "interactive" episodes in which players could choose between various branching narrative paths. This created "ripples" that affected later scenarios, impacting things like alternate versions of scenes to the fate of certain characters. Actions and decisions during gameplay also changed minor details and interactions within these sections. Alan Wake 2 has already been shown to contain similar live-action elements, though to what extent players have agency over them like in previous titles is not quite clear.

Remedy has its work cut out as it prepares to juggle all these elements in future content. Though the idea of the Remedy Connected Universe is good in theory, balancing so many increasingly intricate details across such a broad range of properties and media has its possible drawbacks. Remedy must be mindful to keep everything consistent, particularly given the nature of Alan Wake's setting.

For now though, fans will have to wait and see where the characters and overall story end up at the conclusion of Alan Wake 2. Plot developments as well as critical and audience reactions will likely influence Remedy's decision of whether it considers producing more novels for the series, and if so, what direction to take them in.

Alan Wake 2 releases October 27, 2023, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

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