Warlin Door is an interesting character that is first introduced in Control and fully canonically in Alan Wake 2. Many consider him to be a callback to Martin Hatch from Quantum Break. Remedy doesn’t own the rights to that game (currently), so they have to make a few edits here or there with their callbacks to other games.
Warlin Door is never outright given a description to the player on who or what their role in the game is. The player is more or less left to deduce, through evidence, that Warlin Door is Saga Anderson’s father. This is why he appears and helps Alex Wake, because Alex Wake wrote his daughter into his story.
That’s not the only background we have, let’s dive deep into the history of Warlin Door.
Warlin Door – Mr. Door
Warlin Door starts as Mr. Door in Control. Dylan Faden, the antaganoist of the game, meets Mr. Door in a “dark place” and there he tells him that there are “many worlds, side by side, on top of each other, some inside of others.” He talks about how he exists in all of them and shifts between them. Which Dylan asks how do you do it so that he could spread the Hiss to them all and Mr. Door said no.
Door then appears in Alan Wake 2, during the first Sheriff’s Office sequence in the game. He appears as a fully screen jump scare with a soft noise (FMV, Mr. Door only appears as an FMV and doesn’t have a character model) during the first sheriff’s office sequence. This is the same sequence he transports Sheriff Breaker to the Dark Place with him. Mr. Door then appears at the start of Alan’s chapters, shifting between different interviews until they have their final meeting. Its there that Door tells Alan that he’s messing with someone close to him and that he needs to play his part.
At this point, he is no longer reference in the game until The Final Draft. Where Tor and Odin mention that they played on Mr. Door’s show and have buried the hatchet with him, implying that the comment “some doors are better left close” by Tor and Tor running Saga Anderon’s father off, along with the previous statement, meaning that Mr. Door is likely possibly part of the Anderson Family.
Why doesn’t Warlin Door appear directly within the game?
This is a fantastic question and best answered by the context in which the game exists. When you play as Alan, he writes Initiation. Warlin Door simply doesn’t want to appear in Alan Wake’s writing, therefore, he doesn’t appear in the game world which Alan Wake’s writing represents.
Who is he REALLY?
Like in every Remedy game, its often left up to you the reader. Mr. Door could be Saga Anderson’s father. He could just be some mysterious entity. He could be another expression of artistery within the Dark Place. Likewise, he could be a resident, who was struck by lightening and sent to the Dark Place and gained a power.
The more likely answer is the one from Control, the FBC seems to be the most authorative source for information so far. He’s likely an entity that exists that connects worlds together. Since Alan Wake pulls from different dimensions/worlds with his story, this put him on the path with Mr. Door.
Pretty clean answer if you ask us!
