As Capcom continues working on upcoming survival horror title Resident Evil Requiem, director Koshi Nakanishi and producer Masata Kumazawa have spoken about rumours surrounding it, such as the possibility of Leon Kennedy showing up as a playable character. In an interview with The Gamer, Kumazawa spoke about fans of the series taking rumours and speculation as confirmed truth, and how this aspect can lead to fans getting frustrated at the game’s developers.
This frustration largely comes from fans assuming rumours are true then getting disappointed, or even angry at times, that these rumours didn’t end up being true in the actual game.
“Sometimes I talk to people and they act as if various speculation and rumours are just already a confirmed thing, and then they start talking on that basis,” said Kumazawa. “I would like everyone to remember, let’s calm down a bit – what we’ve shown you so far is everything we can say. People get frustrated with us, because even though we didn’t promise things, the rumours and theories were such that they were widely believed.”
Kumazawa and Nakanishi also spoke about the hooded figure in the recent trailers for Resident Evil Requiem, and how speculation has revolved around it being a surprise returning character. The duo has emphatically rejected the notion, confirming that the hooded figure is going to be a brand new character. However, they didn’t really provide more details about this new character.
“Everyone is convinced it [the hooded figure] has to be a reveal of a returning cast member, and there is speculation that it ‘must be this person or must be that person’. But we don’t always want to just lean on surprise comebacks like these,” said Nakanishi and Kumazawa. “The hooded person is a new character, we will confirm that much. In this case, it’s a newly created character for this storyline, so it’s a bit of a previously undisclosed detail, but hopefully it contextualises how we’re approaching the game’s story.”
At Tokyo Game Show 2025, the two had also spoken about Leon Kennedy, as well as the disappointment some fans might be feeling due to him not officially “passing the torch” to a new protagonist. Nakanishi and Kumazawa laughed about this, saying that “We will take on board this feedback.” They did note that Resident Evil Requiem isn’t necessarily going to be a “passing the torch” moment for the franchise’s protagonist.
“Although we don’t have firm plans for the future storylines of later titles in the series, I still think passing the torch is probably going a bit too far, because we’re not just going to wipe the slate clean completely in terms of the series lore and history. But at the same time, I don’t want to always have to just go back to the well of existing characters to create new games, which was part of the motivation to introduce Grace.”
Resident Evil Requiem is being developed for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2, and is coming out on February 27, 2026. Interestingly, Capcom has noted that the survival horror title wasn’t originally planned for the Switch 2.
