Sony announced a sequel to one of its iconic horror series at State of Play last night in Until Dawn 2, and fans were quick to pick out a familiar award winning face from the winner of 2023’s Game of the Year winner.

Over a decade on from the original Until Dawn, Sony is taking the series in a very new direction with its sequel, swapping an abandoned alpine lodge for a tropical island escape. Once again, the story will pick up with a group of young characters, this time on the hunt for ghosts while chasing an online viral hit.

Until Dawn quickly rose to fame due to riffing on the campy stereotypes of horror movies while also utilising the likenesses of several Hollywood actors. Rami Malek lent his appearance to the character of Josh, while Hayden Panettiere played Sam.

It looks like Until Dawn 2 will continue this trend of casting well-known actors with one particular face extremely recognisable from his award winning performance as Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3. Neil Newbon won the award for Best Performance at The Game Awards 2023 and has since gone on to appear in titles such as Dead Take, Marathon, Crimson Desert and Saros.

While Newbon’s voice has typically been how audiences recognise him in games, he’s lending his full appearance to Until Dawn 2 with full motion capture. It’s unclear whether his character will be one we can trust from what we’ve seen in the trailer so far, but it seems clear he’ll be a key part in whatever mystery unravels on the remote island.

Newbon isn’t the only prominent actor making their appearance in Until Dawn 2. Fans have been quick to identify the rest of the cast, which currently comprises of:

• Gavin Leatherwood
• Spencer Moore II
• Neil Newbon
• Dacre Montgomery
• Hannah Kepple
• Tanner Buchanan
• Camila Senna
• Sarah Catherine Hook
• Janina Gavankar
• Andie Ju
• Gia Kim
• Raymond Lee

In terms of gameplay, it seems that developer Firesprite is returning to that classic ‘choose your adventure’ style that Supermassive Games debuted in the original. You’ll decide what each character does and doesn’t do at key points in the story, with one example being whether to push your boyfriend off a cliff while running away from a mysterious threat.

As advertised prominently at the end of the trailer, ‘everyone can die’, which will hopefully lead to plenty of replayability to see all of the endings Firesprite cooks up.

Until Dawn 2 is currently slated for release in 2027 and will launch exclusively on PlayStation 5.

Are you excited to learn more about Neil Newbon’s character in Until Dawn 2?