During the recent Resident Evil Showcase, Requiem director Koshi Nakanishi joked that he never said Leon wouldn't be in the game, despite months of gaslighting and dodging the issue.
This week's Resident Evil Showcase wasn't exactly packed to the brim with exciting news (unless you're desperate to spend two grand on a fancy watch), but it did give us even more gameplay footage of Leon Kennedy. As a Resi 4 diehard, Leon already looks to be the highlight of Requiem, but the real treat was knowing that the saga of wondering if he's in the game was finally, truly over.
If you've been following Resident Evil Requiem, you'll know that the biggest talking point surrounding it is whether or not Leon would be playable, as he was rumored to be during the game's development. That saga lasted for a long time, with Capcom claiming that Grace was the only main character in the game, leading many to call out the team for lying when he was finally revealed.
Resident Evil Requiem's director claims he never lied about Leon being in the game
“Seriously, I didn't say that at all”
As pointed out by Twitter user dantmnation, the Resident Evil Showcase from earlier this week opened up with a segment called “So… Leon is back?”. This episode saw Resident Evil Requiem's director, Koshi Nakanishi, refer to the months he wondered if Leon would be in the game and clear his name by saying, “I never said he wouldn't show up. Seriously, I didn't say that at all.”
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While it may be true that Nakanishi didn't directly say that Leon wouldn't be in the game at all, Capcom certainly did their best to make us believe that he wasn't. When the game was first announced, it stated that Grace was the “new main character”, before saying that they had considered Leon as the main character before deciding that players didn't want to see him “scared”.
This point is something that Nakanishi actually brought up in the Resident Evil Showcase, as he noted that the team originally aimed to make a more horror-oriented game with Leon as the star, before deciding that he wasn't a good fit for it. That horror focus was then carried over to Grace, while Leon got his Resident Evil 4-style action gameplay.
To be fair to Nakanishi, the only other time he suggested that Leon wasn't in Requeim was in response to the AI leaks of him with an eyepatch, which was more of a dismissal of those images in particular. So, as much as Capcom definitely wanted to hide the truth and trick us a bit, it's actually true that he never outright said that Leon wouldn't be in the game.
Resident Evil Requiem
- Released
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February 27, 2026
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Strong Language, In-Game Purchase
- Engine
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RE engine
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