‘Alan Wake II’ Race-Swaps Saga Anderson, Replaces Original Actress Malla Malmivaara With ‘The Idol’ Actress Melanie Liburd
Remedy Entertainment released the first gameplay trailer for Alan Wake II, confirming that Saga Anderson is now a playable character and revealing that she has been race-swapped from her early appearance.
Initially introduced an an Easter egg featured in Remedy’s 2016 Quantum Break, FBI agents Alex Casey and Saga Anderson were respectively played by Alan Wake and Alan Wake II Director Sam Lake and Finnish actress/singer Malla Malmivaara.
https://youtu.be/dbFqmP8CYxo
This was even officially confirmed by Lake himself who, in December of 2015, took to Twitter to reveal, “FBI Agents Saga Anderson & Alex Casey hard at work, looking for a missing writer,” including the #QuantumBreak and #AlanWake hashtags.
In a follow-up tweet posted a few days later, sharing the full Easter egg video seen in Quantum Break, Lake confirmed that the missing writer alluded to in both his previous post and the clip was played by Ilkka Villi — Finnish actor who lends his appearance for the character of Alan Wake in the original Alan Wake, the Bright Falls TV series, Quantum Break, and the upcoming Alan Wake II.
Similarly, Lake also confirmed that Malmivaara was the woman playing the role of Saga Anderson in the Quantum Break Easter egg.
Anderson has since been introduced as a black woman played by The Idol and This Is Us actress Melanie Liburd, who lends both her appearance and vocal talent for the role of the co-protagonist FBI agent in the Alan Wake sequel.
In an interview with GameSpot, Alan Wake II Director Sam Lake was joined by Performance Director Hannah Price, who gushed over Liburd, declaring, “We really, really, really, really, really wanted Mel.”
“We just felt like she was gonna bring so much to Saga so when she came on we were all just delighted,” she further explained, implying that they all wanted to cast her before she even auditioned for the role.
Price added, “It’s one of the best things about working with Remedy. Obviously, the stories are so epic and brilliant. But there’s room for everyone to come together and really explore the characters and make sure that the character is developed and rung for every little bit of storytelling that can come out of it.”
Interestingly, albeit unsurprisingly, the This Is Us actress shared why she’s excited for players to know more about Saga Anderson as she revealed that her character being a woman of colour was one of the driving forces behind her enthusiasm to play the FBI agent.
“I’m excited for the world to see Saga,” Liburd said. “Because I think she’s a brilliant role model and just to see a woman in this role, a woman of colour being a protagonist in a game… that we don’t see that often.”
Liburd’s comments could be suggesting that the race-swap of the character was an intentional move made by the developer and that she was cast in the role because of her skin colour.
In that same behind the scenes video, Lake admitted that Saga Anderson is now being written with Liburd in mind, declaring, “Because of the writing process being ongoing, there are always new ideas, and writing it more and more specifically to [Melanie Liburd] as a role.”
The Alan Wake II director’s comments contradict those made by Liburd in her exclusive interview with GameSpot, wherein the actress noted the character of Saga Anderson is “such a well-rounded, full character even from the page that [Sam Lake] created.”
Users on social media were quick to react to the reveal, calling out Remedy Entertainment for the race-swapping of Saga Anderson.
“Cool race swap there Remedy,” ironically pointed out @calcutas6000 on Twitter.
“Can’t wait to play with a weak character who has to be saved every 10 min by the black girl placed there to raise esg score,” asserted @Kigeki3.
Asking a valid question, @BobLoblaw860 inquires, “Why didn’t you race swap Alan Wake and Alex Casey too?” sharing a screenshot of Sam Lake’s tweet confirming Saga Anderson and Alex Casey were the FBI agents featured in Quantum Break.
Twitter user @WhiteVoltt simply shared a picture of Malla Malmivaara as Saga Anderson to drive the point home.
Without wasting any characters to express disappointment in Remedy Entertainment’s race-swapping of Saga Anderson, @IT3YB4LLS simply wrote, “Went woke.”
What do you make of Remedy race-swapping Saga Anderson in the upcoming Alan Wake II game?
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