Dylan Faden

Who is Dylan Faden?

Dylan Faden is the primary protagonist of CONTROL Resonant, and from in-game lore and collectibles, one of the most powerful parautilitarians the Federal Bureau of Control has ever contained. Born in 1992 — making Dylan 34 in 2026 — he is the younger brother of Jesse Faden, the lead of Control (2019). The Bureau catalogued Dylan as Prime Candidate 6 (P6), and former Head of Research Casper Darling rated Dylan's paranatural potential alongside that of former Director Broderick Northmoor. Where Jesse spent seventeen years on the outside searching for him, Dylan spent those years inside the Oldest House — and that inverted childhood is the engine of the sequel's story.

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Dylan Faden backstory before Resonant

Dylan's history across the franchise is documented through Bureau collectibles and canon archives:

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• Ordinary AWE (2002). In the town of Ordinary, Maine, the Faden siblings found a Slide Projector Object of Power and made contact with the entity Polaris. The adults of Ordinary vanished and the FBC arrived. Jesse escaped; Dylan was taken to the Oldest House.
• The Prime Candidate program. Dylan was raised inside the Bureau under Casper Darling and groomed as the next Director under Zachariah Trench. The Threshold Kids videos are implied to have been made to teach young Dylan paranatural concepts.
• The Roberts incident. Dylan accidentally killed Agent Roberts with his powers. The Dylan Evaluation collectible corroborates his account — "It wasn't my fault. I couldn't restrain it yet." Helen Marshall treated Dylan as extremely dangerous; Darling took responsibility and later called Dylan a lost cause. Dylan was relocated to a containment cell in the Panopticon.
• Isolation. Cut off from the outside, Dylan came to believe Jesse and Polaris had abandoned him — the Dylan Faden Transcript collectible records Dylan shouting, "You both left me here to rot!" Dr. Carla Vaughn conducted psychological evaluations tracking his growing isolation.
• Control (2019). Jesse finds Dylan imprisoned and Hiss-influenced, speaking of himself in the third person: "I welcomed the Hiss. I let it in… The Hiss set me free. Polaris is using you." Dylan is central to the Hiss incursion. One precision: the 2019 breach traces to Trench opening the door under Hiss influence — Bureau staff blaming Dylan is an in-universe attitude, not objective fact.

Role in CONTROL Resonant

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Launch reviews (GameSpot, The New York Times) place Resonant about seven years after Control. The Oldest House is still under lockdown, the Hiss — and the Mold — spill into Manhattan in a second AWE-scale crisis, and Jesse, now the FBC's Director, is missing. The Bureau's answer is Plan B: after years of confinement, former captors deploy Dylan at the peak of a supernatural crisis to fight a reality-bending cosmic entity across Manhattan — and to find Jesse.

Per narrative files, Jesse awakens Dylan with a spear-like artifact — the Aberrant, an energy Object of Power — while a control safeguard device sits at the back of his head (Case 45-HQ-121). In the field, Dylan answers to handler Agent Zoe De Vera. Reviews describe Dylan's tone as weary, guilty, and socially awkward: an antihero, not a power fantasy. Remedy's Thomas Puha has confirmed that Jesse is not playable — Dylan is the sole player character, with Jesse holding a significant role off the controls. For how the sequel repositions the original cast, see our prequel comparison guide.

Voice actor

Sean Durrie voices and performs Dylan Faden across the entire arc: Control (2019), The Foundation, AWE, Alan Wake 2: The Lake House, and CONTROL Resonant (2026). His resume — per IMDb and Behind The Voice Actors — also includes Nick Masters in Quantum Break, so Remedy veterans have heard him before.

Abilities and combat style

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This is a systems overview of Dylan's loadout, not a build guide:

• The Aberrant. Dylan's shapeshifting melee weapon. Forms described across announcement coverage and reviews include a two-handed hammer, dual fast blades with a crit-chance lean, a large scythe with wide sweeps, and a mid form with a backstab bonus.
• Traversal. Dash, double jump, and hover/levitation carry Dylan through Manhattan's gravity-folded spaces.
• Boss-granted abilities. Combat abilities are earned from bosses, and GameSpot notes up to roughly six active abilities equipped at once. New Game Plus lets Dylan equip multiple abilities from the same boss, while bosses gain new behaviors (PlayStation Blog).
• Artifacts. Dylan crafts artifacts in the Gap, with three artifact slots in a first playthrough and a fourth unlocking in New Game Plus (PlayStation Blog).
• Assist Mode. Sliders run both easier and harder — adjusting enemy aggression, perfect-dodge window, projectile speed, and damage taken — giving players flexible control over Dylan's combat balance without locking achievements (PlayStation Blog).

Connection to Jesse

The Faden siblings have been separated since Ordinary: Jesse escaped the Bureau in 2002 and spent Control fighting her way back to Dylan; Dylan spent those years inside, convinced she and Polaris had left him to rot. Resonant inverts the search — Jesse, now Director, is the one who is missing, and finding her is Dylan's story. Ahead of the September 24, 2026 launch, that inversion is the cleanest way to understand why the sequel changed leads; we track further story beats as they are confirmed in our news timeline.

Appearances timeline