Apparently, Leon is a bit too cool for the kind of horror Capcom is going for with Resident Evil Requiem.
Capcom revealed more details about its next highly-anticipated entry in the Resident Evil series, Resident Evil Requiem, in the Capcom Spotlight June 2025 show on Friday (27 June). While the developer didn't really show off any gameplay, they did confirm that it will be set around 30 years after the missile strike on Raccoon City and that its true protagonist will be new character Grace Ashcroft.
When Capcom first revealed Resident Evil Requiem in Summer Game Fest 2025 earlier this month, Grace Ashcroft–who might just be the daughter of Resident Evil Outbreak’s Alyssa Ashcroft–was front and center. She is an FBI agent tasked with investigating a series of mysterious deaths, which ties into the incident at Raccoon City.
With that said, many longtime fans of the Resident Evil series held out hope that fan-favourite character Leon Kennedy will also one of Requiem's main characters. Requiem's developer team, however, clarified in a Creators' Message video that Leon might be a bit too cool for the kind of horror they're pushing in the upcoming title.
"We always thought about making Leon the protagonist, but making a horror game around him is difficult," said Director Koshi Nakanishi. “He wouldn't jump at something like a bucket falling. No one wants to see Leon scared by every little thing so he's actually quite a bad match for horror.”
Based on what little Capcom have shown off so far, Requiem seems to be going for a more grounded and visceral kind of horror with Requiem. The game's two trailers have been gloomy and downright oppressive, with unseen monstrosities lurking in the shadows.
Nakanishi said their core concept for Requiem is addictive fear, likely hearkening to Resident Evil's roots while also being new ground for the series.
“There's something about the catharsis you get from overcoming your fears. It creates an addiction that makes you want to do more, to play more. That intense focus, while scary, makes for a really fun game. This served as our launching point for Requiem,” added Nakanishi.
If you think about it, Leon–known for surviving a city full of zombies as a rookie cop and going on a solo mission to rescue the president's daughter from a sinister cult–doesn't really fit that kind of setting. Knowing Leon, guttural noises coming from a dark corner that will make any normal person turn tail and run will instead tell him he's headed at the right direction, pistol and fists at the ready.
“We always thought about making Leon the protagonist, but making a horror game around him is difficult. He wouldn't jump at something like a bucket falling. No one wants to see Leon scared by every little thing so he's actually quite a bad match for horror,” said Nakanishi.
Grace Ashcroft will be “a new type of character for the Resident Evil series”
So instead of braving the darkness as Leon, Requiem will instead have players face their fears as Grace Ashcroft. While little about her background aside from being an FBI agent has been revealed, the developers have positioned her as a more relatable kind of protagonist for Resident Evil fans.
Sure, mowing down hordes of zombies is good fun, but Resident Evil is at its best when you are faced with the unknown horrors of rampant biological experiments. Classifying that bloodthirsty, tentacled thing running at you as a weird kind of zombie matters little when you realise that a bloodthirsty, tentacled thing running at you. For Requiem's dev team, Grace Ashcroft–who they described as introverted, easily scared, and "a new type of character for the Resident Evil series–is the perfect character to relay the gravity of the situation the game will be putting players in.
“We wanted someone that experiences horror from the same perspective as the player. She learns to overcome her fears throughout the course of the story, but she's also an analyst for the FBI who's trained with guns and is able to act with calm deductive reasoning,” said Nakanishi.
To that end, the devs did reveal one key gameplay element in Requiem: players will be able to freely switch between first-person and third-person POVs at any point during the game.
The first-person perspective makes for "tense, realistic gameplay" for when you really want to immerse yourself in whatever horrific ordeal Grace will get herself into. Meanwhile, the third-person POV (via the series' classic over-the-shoulder camera) lets players see "more of the action" and is "great for people who enjoy action-heavy gameplay."
While we're excited to return to Raccoon City and face the darkness as Grace Ashcroft, we're still holding out hope that Leon will have more than a brief cameo though. After all, you can't go back to Raccoon City without the man known most for escaping its horrors.
Resident Evil Requiem is officially launching on 27 February, 2026.
