New Resident Evil Movie’s Fantastic Leon Replacement Actually Makes The Film More Faithful Than Anyone Realized

Still, despite everything that works, many have wondered why characters like Leon Kennedy and Jill Valentine do not appear in the new movie. The video game franchise, which began in 1996, has crafted indelible characters, and for many, it is as difficult to imagine Resident Evil without them as a Super Mario Bros. movie without Luigi, Peach, or Toad.

The timeline for Resident Evil also generally fits with the games, and director Zach Cregger has cited it as taking place around the events of the game Resident Evil 2.

While there are some challenges in lining this up, as the movie takes place in the present day, while the game occurs in 1998, this does speak to the characters present in Raccoon City during those events.

Despite this, the film is quietly a much more faithful adaptation than many are giving it credit for. And while it would be fun to see characters like Leon onscreen in a faithful adaptation, the new film's protagonist actually does something very interesting that follows the trajectory of many different and beloved Resident Evil games before it.

Bryan Is The Central Character Of Zach Cregger's Resident Evil

Leon does not play a role in Resident Evil, although he does exist in the universe, but the film's new main character is a spectacular replacement. Bryan, played by Austin Abrams, makes a fantastic core figure as a medical courier tasked with making a delivery to Raccoon City during the t-Virus outbreak.

Bryan, in many ways, feels like an audience surrogate. He is flawed and deeply human, which makes the terror that he feels at each turn feel so much more realistic. His reactions and expressions feel legitimate, considering the horrific events unfolding around him. This makes him largely feels like a playable character from one of the games.

The film has a great cast of performers, including Paul Walter Hauser and Zach Cherry. However, Bryan is clearly the core of the movie, and does a great job in his role. All of this points to an important franchise trend that is surprisingly serviced by the new film.

Bryan Follows A Long Legacy Of Introducing New Resident Evil Characters In Each Game

Resident Evil has several characters who have become popular throughout the series, but almost every game in the mainline entries has introduced new playable characters. The first game brought in Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine as the playable avatars, then the sequel saw the first appearances of Claire Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy.

Resident Evil 3 featured Jill Valentine's return, certainly, but it also introduced Carlos Oliveira. Leon starred in Resident Evil 4, but this was alongside Ashley Graham and Ada Wong, both of whom were playable for shorter sections of the game. Then, Resident Evil 5 brought back Chris to team up with the brand new Sheva Alomar.

Resident Evil 6 featured characters both new and old, including Chris, Leon, Sherry Birkin, Jake Muller, and several more. The colorful game felt like a culmination, but the franchise suffered from its reliance on familiar faces and action-based gameplay. The series pivoted from there in its next two installments before returning to Leon in Resident Evil Requiem.

Still, Requiem also introduced Grace Ashcroft. All of this is to show that introducing new heroes, rather than just relying on protagonists of the past, is actually a core part of Resident Evil's DNA. The best example of this was actually shown in the seventh and eighth games in the series.

Comparing Cregger's Resident Evil To Resident Evil: Biohazard

The seventh title in the Resident Evil series, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, does not often seem to fit in with the rest of the franchise. A reboot of sorts after audiences did not respond well to Resident Evil 6, Biohazard was a reinvention in terms of gameplay as well as in story, pivoting from third-person to first-person controls.

Only loosely connected to the previous games in the series, the game moved its setting to a creepy estate in Louisiana. Rather than typical zombies impacted by the t-Virus in Raccoon City, the antagonists were the Molded, and the Baker family.

Channeling the tone of films like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, the game felt like a genuinely new take on the series, and even featured a brand new protagonist.

Ethan Winters was wholly created for the game, and would again be the focus of its sequel in Resident Evil: Village. In this, with unique settings, gameplay, and only occasional connections to the original games, Biohazard felt quite distant from what many had expected from a Resident Evil entry, and still was able to revitalize the franchise.

With this in mind, the new film actually feels even more matched to the spirit and tone of the original games. And with such a wide range of entries within the franchise, it actually makes a surprising amount of sense to focus on new character like Bryan in the latest movie.

Introducing Some Familiar Characters Is Essential In A Sequel

Despite all this, too many movies and shows in Resident Evil's history have failed to give sufficient focus to the franchise's most beloved characters. The animated Resident Evil movies are strong, certainly, but Chris, Jill, Leon, Claire, and many more figures in the games have become beloved over the years, and deserve to be a part of the franchise's films.

Following the Milla Jovovich-starring movies, which, despite occasional appearances of familiar characters, mostly focused on Alice, and following the Netflix Resident Evil series, which delved into the history of the Wesker family, the more beloved heroes in the series need to have more big-screen iterations.

Yes, Welcome to Raccoon City, which tried to be a more faithful adaptation, did not work. However, this came down to weaker execution in terms of the script. There are effective ways to include characters like Leon in future films, and the best way to do this would be to write them into the sequels to this latest film.

A new world of Resident Evil, set in the present day, is now set up. Including some of the familiar characters from the games, whether in lead or supporting roles, feels like an essential next step in the success of the franchise.