‘No one wants to see Leon scared’: Resident Evil 9 Requiem director admits that Leon Kennedy is just too cool to be the protagonist of a horror game

'No one wants to see Leon scared': Resident Evil 9 Requiem director admits that Leon Kennedy is just too cool to be the protagonist of a horror game

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Resident Evil 9 Requiem director Koshi Nakanishi confirms Grace Ashcroft as the ‘brand new lead character’ but I’m still not convinced Leon Kennedy won’t pop up out of somewhere

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Resident Evil Requiem

‘No one wants to see Leon scared’: Resident Evil 9 Requiem director admits that Leon Kennedy is just too cool to be the protagonist of a horror game

Elie Gould

27 June 2025

Leon would just make a snarky remark and flip out of the way.

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Capcom Spotlight (EN-UK) | 26.6.2025 – YouTube

Ever since Resident Evil 9 Requiem was teased at Summer Game Fest players, myself included, have been huffing copium in hopes that, despite everything we’ve seen, Capcom will bring Leon Kennedy back for this iconic return to Raccoon City.

Koshi Nakanishi, director of Requiem, has stated multiple times that Grace Ashcroft will be the protagonist, as shown in the first trailer, but I’m still not convinced that she’ll be the only one to make an appearance. However, Nakanishi has expanded on why Ashcroft is the best fit for Requiem, and is much better than Leon, and to stop asking about Leon, please.

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“Our concept for this game was ‘addictive fear’,” Nakanishi says during a Capcom Spotlight. “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.

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Resident Evil 9 Requiem director Koshi Nakanishi confirms Grace Ashcroft as the ‘brand new lead character’ but I’m still not convinced Leon Kennedy won’t pop up out of somewhere

Move over Ashcroft, Resident Evil 9 will have its T-virus poster boy back in the limelight according to notable Resi leaker: ‘Leon Kennedy is not the only playable character but he is the main character’

Resident Evil Requiem’s behind-closed-doors demo was weirdly boring, but it’s got me donning a tin foil hat and joining the ‘Leon’s back’ chants

“The protagonist this time is an intelligence analyst for the FBI, Grace Ashcroft. She’s introverted and easily scared, which is a new type of character for the Resident Evil series. We wanted someone that experiences horror from the same perspective as the player.”

I wouldn’t say this kind of character is completely new ground for the series. Resident Evil 7, which was also directed by Nakanishi, introduced Ethan Winters into the protagonist pool.
Now Ethan may be brave enough to travel to a remote house in Louisiana, but he also spent the entirety of Biohazard having an existential crisis and getting very scared. He toughened up for Resident Evil 8 though, casually glueing his hand back on and slowly assembling his deconstructed daughter.

(Image credit: Capcom)
Characters like this may not seem anywhere as cool as some of the og Resi stock, like Kennedy, Valentine, or the rock-puncher himself Redfield, but there is actually a pretty valid reason why scaredy cats work so well in Resi.

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“We always thought about making Leon the protagonist, but making a horror game based around him is difficult,” Nakanishi says. “He wouldn’t jump at something like a bucket falling. No one wants to see Leon scared by everything. So he’s actually quite a bad match for horror.”
This is sadly true. Resident Evil 4 is the least scary game in the series by far, and something that I don’t think can be classed as a horror game at all. What’s to be scared of when you can just suplex grandmas and beat up eldritch gods, all while still being pissed you have to work overtime?

This game is a requiem, a eulogy to those who came before.Koshi Nakanishi, director of Requiem
This is where Ashcroft comes in. Having a character that reflects a reality that the player would experience makes for much better horror. But it’s not as if she’ll be completely helpless. “She learns to overcome her fears throughout the course of the story,” Nakanishi continues. “She’s also an analyst for the FBI who’s trained in guns and is able to act with calm and deductive reasoning.”
Am I convinced that we won’t see Leon at all during Requiem? No. Towards the end of the Resident Evil section Nakanishi and art director Tomonori Takano stated just how big a deal going back to Raccoon City is.
“This series became really popular with stories set during the original zombie outbreak, and since then we’ve seen a lot of characters face hardships due to Raccoon City, who have faced hardships and grown,” Takano says.
“There were a lot of characters who were involved in the original outbreak, who lost their lives or were drastically changed as a result of it,” Nakanishi continues. “Resident Evil is a series that was born from Umbrella and the Raccoon City zombie outbreak, and we chose the title ‘Requiem’ to mark a milestone in the series. This game is a requiem, a eulogy to those who came before.”
By those standards just about anyone could show up, the Redfield siblings, Ada Wong, Jill Valentine, and yes, even Leon Kennedy. I’m not going to give up on a cameo until I’ve rolled credits on Requiem, that’s for sure.

News Writer

Elie is a news writer with an unhealthy love of horror games—even though their greatest fear is being chased. When they’re not screaming or hiding, there’s a good chance you’ll find them testing their metal in metroidvanias or just admiring their Pokemon TCG collection. Elie has previously worked at TechRadar Gaming as a staff writer and studied at JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs about Smash Bros. or any indie game that crossed their path.

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Resident Evil 9 Requiem director Koshi Nakanishi confirms Grace Ashcroft as the ‘brand new lead character’ but I’m still not convinced Leon Kennedy won’t pop up out of somewhere

Move over Ashcroft, Resident Evil 9 will have its T-virus poster boy back in the limelight according to notable Resi leaker: ‘Leon Kennedy is not the only playable character but he is the main character’

Resident Evil Requiem’s behind-closed-doors demo was weirdly boring, but it’s got me donning a tin foil hat and joining the ‘Leon’s back’ chants

Resident Evil 9 may have been teased in a new RE4 video, and players are having totally normal reactions to it: ‘Together at last, like ice cream and pizza’

Resident Evil Requiem isn’t a first-person or third-person horror game—it’s both

RE9 is real: Resident Evil Requiem just got a surprise SGF reveal, and it’s launching in February

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