When IGN prepared the interview with Resident Evil’s director: Requiem, Koshi Nakanishi, and producer Masato Kumazawa, had a list of questions related to a character who officially remains missing: Leon Kennedy.
The expectation was not unreasonable. Capcom had transmitted Capcom Online Program, aligned with the Tokyo Game Show, and many fans finally expected to see a trailer that confirmed Leon’s return, as a playable figure or just as a secondary presence. But that’s not what happened. The new trailer did not bring Kennedy and the preview version available at the fair also showed no trail of the agent.
Nakanishi and Kumazawa laughed when confronted with this frustration: “Let’s take this feedback,” Kumazawa replied, without committing anything else.
Fan pressure has been going on for months since the first Requiem trailer, which seemed to contain clues that pointed to Leon’s return. Since then, rumors have fired, suggesting that Kennedy could emerge as co-protection with rookie Grace Ashcroft. Although the producers have tried to ward off these theories, claiming that Leon does not fit the most contained and less -oriented tone for the game, they never said clearly that he will have no participation. Silence feeds speculation.
We questioned the pair about whether the obsession with Leon could not harm Grace’s role as a new protagonist of the narrative, but they were not concerned. “We are always happy when fans are so interested in the game, to the point of speculating this way,” said Kumazawa.
And is it then to refine a kind of witness passage between the classic icons and new faces in the series? Not so much. “Although there are no defined plans for the future of the saga, I think it is exaggerated to talk about witnessing, because we will not erase the whole story and lore of the series. But I don’t always want to be dependent on the same characters to create new games, that was the motivation to introduce the grace,” Kumazawa explained.
