Fans thought they were done with the original Life is Strange duo of Max and Chloe. Following the first game and its 2017 prequel, players said their tearful goodbyes to these beloved characters — or so they thought. Following Max Caulfield’s abrupt return in 2024’s Double Exposure, this week sees the unlikely return of Chloe in Life is Strange: Reunion, an unexpected narrative retconning sequel that’s been greeted with more raised eyebrows than rapturous fervor. It aims to bring the Max and Chloe story to an end for good — and it was just as much of a shock to the actors as it was to fans.

“It was a massive surprise,” says the voice of Chloe Price, Rhianna DeVries, on getting the call to audition again in 2023. “After we wrapped Before the Storm, I thought, ‘All right, she’s not coming back. I have to make my peace with that.” After Double Exposure laid the parallel-universe-hopping foundations for her return, Reunion sees Chloe Price sassing her way back onto the screen, defying death in one in-game timeline, and undoing the agonizingly made choice of millions of players in the process. DeVries tells me that they were just as shocked as fans were. “I couldn’t sit down for a week. I just couldn’t stop smiling,” DeVries beams. “I was ecstatic to get to play this character again.”

The initial online reaction to Reunion, however, wasn’t quite as gushing. At the end of the first Life is Strange, players were faced with the agonizing choice of either saving Chloe’s life — and dooming her hometown in the process — or sacrificing Chloe in order to save everyone else. It was a dilemma that drove countless discussions over which was the most moral choice, giving passionate fans a sense of ownership over Chloe’s fate. The sceptical fan reaction to Chloe’s unsolicited return, then, is somewhat understandable. Yet after playing a couple of hours of Reunion, I’m pleasantly surprised by how well things have been handled.

“I think that everybody involved in creating this game felt similarly: that this was something sacred and really formative to so many people,” explains Hannah Telle, the voice of Max Caulfield. “It was formative for myself and Rhianna and for the people who made this game as well. So I think that it was approached with love, care, and caution.” 

When it comes to the emotionally earnest Life is Strange series, authenticity has always been key to selling its characters, “hella” corny dialogue aside. First voicing a 16-year-old Chloe in Before the Storm while a teenager, as DeVries returned to the role at age 28, they were shocked to see Chloe’s unlikely resurrection one again mirror their own. “Two or three years after Before the Storm was released, I was in a car accident,” DeVries explains, “where I died in front of my family and my best friend.”

With DeVries declared clinically dead, they were resuscitated under miraculous circumstances, leaving them confused and shaken. “When I was first told that Chloe will be navigating having memories of having died and having different timelines living inside of her psyche, I went, ‘That is crazy!’” DeVries says. “I think that the way that they’ve written Chloe and the way that Chloe navigates the story is honest and real — and I’m saying that as somebody that very much relates to what she’s going through.”

It’s a statement that rings true as I play Reunion. Following the eyebrow-raising end of Double Exposure — whose parallel-universe-spanning antics paved the way for Chloe’s much-publicized return — I’m relieved to see the writers at Deck Nine took a more grounded approach to their initial reconciliation in Reunion. After she first meets Chloe, Max stays up all night sitting by Chloe’s side, terrified that she may disappear from her life yet again. It’s a far-fetched scenario that is written in such a way as to make the implausible seem plausible, with naturalistic dialogue options exploring both the timelines where Chloe died and where she survived, cleverly honoring previous player choices. “What the writers have done is truly a demonstration of mastery and skill,” says DeVries.

As both actors prepared to revisit their iconic characters, it wasn’t just DeVries who had returned to Life is Strange as a different person. Where Telle initially provided just the voice for Max Caulfield, this time around she also found herself performing Max’s motion capture. Yet trying as she might to match the physicality of Caulfield from the first game, Telle suddenly found her body failing to cooperate. 

Telle didn’t realize until after she wrapped shooting, but she would later be diagnosed with scoliosis, a condition that causes an unusual curvature in the spine. “I didn’t know why at the time, but I just couldn’t get my body to look exactly like I needed Max’s to look from the previous footage of her,” Telle explains. “Every time we would do a scene, I would have to just stand there and wait on the volume while everyone was behind the desk muttering, ‘Why is her arm sticking out like that?” She adds, “It was a mental exercise in staying calm and accepting criticism about something that I was born with, something that I have to become able to morph through and evolve out of. It was a challenge, and I’m still in back therapy.”

With Chloe and Max spawning countless fan art — and an upcoming live-action TV adaptation on Amazon — both Telle and DeVries’ lives have been changed by inhabiting these characters. How the full story of Reunion plays out remains to be seen. Yet if there’s one thing that’s undoubtedly authentic about Max and Chloe’s surprise 2026 swan song, it’s the two central performances behind it, which, for one last time, are bringing this beloved duo back to life.

“I think so highly of Max,” says Telle. “And I am so grateful for this closure … and to have been able to be a part of her story in this intimate, profound, and beautiful way.”

When fans nervously tuned in to watch HBO’s adaptation of one of their favorite video games, there was one familiar presence that immediately calmed their nerves: the mournful guitar of Gustavo Santaolalla. As certain story beats changed and beloved polygonal faces were replaced with new actors, the beating heart of The Last of Us — its mesmerizing, tension-ridden score — survived the transition to TV intact.

“[Series creator] Neil Druckmann has said that my music is part of the DNA of The Last of Us,“ Santaolalla says. “I think the fact that we kept the sonic fabric — that we didn’t do an orchestral score for the series — has been instrumental in keeping those fans of the games fans of the series, too.”

Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Santaolalla first started releasing music when he was 17. Loving both English rock bands and the traditional Argentine folk music that he was raised on, Santaolalla melded both into his own unique sound, part of a genre called rock nacional. Before he could fully make his mark, Santaolalla’s family fled the Argentine junta dictatorship in 1978, moving to Los Angeles, where his unique sound soon caught the attention of filmmakers. Snapped up to score the 2000 film Amores Perros and 2003’s 21 Grams, their success led to Santaolalla composing the soundtracks for Brokeback Mountain and Babel, both of which won him Oscars.

Santaolla’s sonic secret? Embracing the eloquence of silence. “I work so much with silence and space, because silences sometimes can be louder than a note that you’re playing,” says Santaolalla. “I remember on Brokeback Mountain when I first sent them the music, the producer said ‘I thought you were pulling my leg at first, because you wait so long to play the next note!’”

After winning two Oscars back to back, Santaolalla carefully considered his next career move. Despite being a self-professed “terrible gamer” Santaolalla tells me he always loved watching his son play, mesmerized by the on-screen kineticism. “I always thought that if somebody connects this at an emotional level with a player, it’s going to be a revolution.”

It turns out, the universe had picked up on Santaolalla’s newest interest. Post-Oscars, he was approached by several game companies to do music, but turned them down because “I’m very picky about the work that I do.”  That includes a lucrative gaming project that he is careful not to name. “Everyone thought I was crazy!” he chuckles. Still, Santaolalla quietly hoped that a more emotionally-resonant project would materialize.

“So, I waited… and then Neil appeared,” Santaolalla says. “When Neil told his colleagues that he wanted me to do this, [his colleagues ] said, No, Gustavo is not going to be interested — he won two Oscars! But when Neil [told me] the story, and that he wanted to do a game that connects with people on an emotional level… I was sold.

What even Neil Druckmann wasn’t prepared for, however, was that Gustavo’s music would become just as crucial a presence as Ellie and Joel. In a post apocalyptic world where life is scarce and danger lurks around every corner, silence hangs in the air like a threat. Santaolalla’s scuffed notes, discordant melodies and screeching fret slides reverberate across the dilapidated city streets, feeling as unpredictable as the world Ellie and Joel inhabit.

“I love the use of imperfections, even errors or mistakes,” Santaolalla explains. “Any professional guitar player when they’re recording tend to avoid all kinds of noises; when you run your hand on the fretboard or little glitches in your playing. But sometimes, I’ll push those in my mix, and I think that humanizes it. That’s why many people have said that my music becomes like a character — a presence. It’s why I play things myself.”

In the second game, Gustavo’s music becomes a physical part of the fiction, with Ellie carrying a guitar throughout her quest for vengeance. She takes out the instrument during welcome moments of downtime,  offering cathartic respite. And just like Gustavo’s score, these beautiful vignettes break up the harrowing silence, which carries through in the second season of the show.

“I love the TV series too,” says Santaolalla. “ For the show, Neil associated himself with another incredible talent, Craig Mazin — the guy that did Chernobyl — who knows that media and that language. I think it was a big, big challenge, because when you go from one media to another one, people say no, I like the original better! So, I think, once again, that the way we have used the music has been instrumental to keep that fan base attached.”

He adds that “I think that when a story is really great, like a theatrical piece — like Shakespeare — it doesn’t matter who plays the character. Obviously Pedro Pascal’s Joel is different than the Joel from the game, but the substance of the character is so powerful that those things are just superficial. They could have done this as a series, as a feature film, as a puppet theatre piece, or an animation and it will still land regardless — because it’s just great writing.”

Now as Santaolalla finds himself releasing his very own instrument — the Guitarocko — it feels like the culmination of the musical journey he started as a teen. Melding the traditional Bolivian 10 stringed ronroco with the form factor of a Fender Stratocaster, Gustavo feels a father-like pride for his musical creation: the 73-year-old is invigorated by what The Last Of Us has given him at this stage in his career.

“I’ve been blessed with the fact that I have connected with an audience since I was very young,” he says. “But the way I connect with the fans of The Last of Us and the way they connect with the music… here’s a special devotion that is really beautiful. I have this new audience which is fantastic, and I love that they didn’t know me as an artist or as a film composer! Now they look for my music, and they discover these things. It’s been a gift for me, at this point — after everything that I’ve been through — to be involved with a project like this.”

Nestled between the crowd-pleasing guns and gore of Xbox’s 2024 summer showcase, was an eyebrow-raising, painterly role playing game. As its party of grimacing adults urgently sprints across a shimmering, surrealist landscape, a voiceover depicts a world terrorized by an omnipotent being called the Paintress. Each year, she daubs a new descending number on a distant monolith and everyone of the corresponding age disappears. With 60+ expeditions meeting a grizzly end, it is now up to the oldest remaining humans — the 33 year olds — to try and reverse their realm’s futile fate.

After Doom: The Dark Ages and Gears Of War E Day’s carnal thrills, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s existential journey offered something refreshingly abstract. The 30 strong team at developer Sandfall Interactive took inspiration from both classic RPGs and Belle Epoque-era Impressionist painters, aiming to make a refreshingly French take on Final Fantasy. It was this lofty ambition that attracted some big name voice talent to this relatively modest game.

“I immediately was drawn to the visual style, the world-building, the characters… just the themes behind the story,” says Andy Serkis, the voice of Clair Obscur’s Renoir. “Before I even became an actor, I was a painter, so there are lots of connections there.”

While getting the voice behind Gollum and Star Wars villain Snoke is a win in itself, he wasn’t the only Hollywood talent drawn to Clair Obscur, with Daredevil’s Charlie Cox also signing on for the role of Gustave. While Hollywood stars appearing in games is nothing new, the RPG’s intriguing themes and naturalistic script coax refreshingly earnest performances from the Hollywood duo, who fit in seamlessly alongside some of gaming’s hottest talents.

“They are not tourists in this game,” Ben Starr, voice of Clive in Final Fantasy XVI and Verso in Clair Obscur, says of Serkis and Cox’s impressive in-game performances. “They are doing some heavy emotional lifting, and they are doing it with a huge reverence to the craft.”

It was the determination of teenager Maelle, who volunteers to embark on Expedition 33 well before her allotted time, that drew Baldur’s Gate 3 actor Jennifer English to the role. “I fell in love with her bravery. As soon as I got the script, I read it like a novel  and I don’t think I stopped reading it to breathe,” says English. “[Maelle] is so young, and yet has this emotional depth, which we do as teenagers. We look back at our teenage selves in a surface way, but just remember the depth of your emotions. For me, it’s all about the storytelling and the character and I just knew, instantly, that I wanted to play this role.”

“It’s a fascinating exploration of mortality,” says Starr, on why Clair Obscur’s existential themes resonate. “I was obsessed by that Friends episode where Rachel turns 30 and that’s the end of her life. I think as a person who was born in 1988, that idea of mortality when you turn 30 was huge. A lot of people who saw [Clair Obscur’s] first trailer went, ‘Wow, dead at 34? I’d be dead.’”

Despite lacking the budget of Final Fantasy or other blockbuster RPGs, Clair Obscur manages to punch above its weight with a unique blend of turn-based and real time combat that compliment its narrative ambition. “I cannot believe what this team has achieved,” reflects Starr. ”This really is a small production filled with passionate people. I think [Sandfall interactive] really wants to show you that small teams can make big experiences and have a big impact.”

With Cox riding high on Daredevil: Born Again, and Serkis’ equally-storied career giving him the freedom to pick his projects, it was Clair Obscur’s compelling characters that enticed the Hollywood actors. For the regularly villain-playing Serkis, he felt an affinity for the morally-ambiguous, mysteriously age-defying Renoir. 

“I don’t believe in the concept of evil,” reflects Serkis, on why he enjoys inhabiting morally murky roles. “As a storyteller and as an actor, it’s your job when investigating a role to think about the character in a way where you can present them as a human being. With many of the darker characters that I played, it’s about saying, what are the layers of the character, the subtext? With Renoir, you get a sense that he is a malevolent force, but there’s some very extraordinary revelations about what he is and how he’s become that way.”

This is far from Serkis’ first experience in games. He has spent decades being one of Hollywood’s mo-cap and video game champions, which included lending his voice to Ninja Theory games Heavenly Sword and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. “I remember the first time I put on a motion capture suit in New Zealand back in 1999 and thinking, this is an extraordinary digital costume,” Serkis says, recalling how misunderstood motion capture was when he first crawled across the set for The Lord Of The Rings. “It’s what it’s like going through the looking glass, because it means you can suddenly play anything.”

That experience inspired him to found his own motion capture studio called The Imaginarium. Serkis has been fascinated by the idea of interactive storytelling ever since, determined to use video games as a teaching tool for future generations. “I started working on the concept of the Imaginarium after Odyssey to the West,” Serkis says. “The idea was to create a place where you could explore next generation storytelling, and one of the first things I remember writing down as a business brief was that I would love to create the entire canon of Shakespeare plays as video games.” While Serkis has yet to adapt Shakespeare into games, Clair Obscur is already being adapted for the big screen, with the entertainment company behind the Sonic the Hedgehog films working on a live-action film.

For Serkis, after so many years of working across games and film, seeing video games finally get mainstream recognition as a storytelling medium has been a moment of personal pride. “The video game world and the film world were so separate back when I first came across it and there was an awful lot of looking down from the lofty heights of the film industry on the video game industry,” reflects Serkis. “Whereas now the opposite has happened, all the big franchise movies that are made totally rely upon video game technology for pre-visualization and virtual production. So it’s had this fantastic kind of emergence.”

_{Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 launches April 24th on the PS5, Xbox, and PC.}