The namesake of Resident Evil’s Leon S. Kennedy has been revealed, and, as many followers suspected, he is named after director Luc Besson’s 1994 French motion movie Leon: The Professional.
Resident Evil 2 director Kideki Kamiya lately took to X and casually confirmed the long-held fan principle in response to a fan declaring the obvious references to the movie in Resident Evil. He mentioned Leon’s identify took place after speaking with Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, who shot down a number of identify concepts earlier than Kamiya supplied up one other suggestion.
“Properly, why do not we simply take it from that film I watched the opposite day,” Kamiya mentioned (by way of Google Translate), that film being Leon: The Skilled, starring Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, and a younger Natalie Portman. Kamiya mentioned Mikami mentioned “Yeah, that works,” and the remaining is historical past.
The connections are greater than slightly apparent. Except for Leon sharing a reputation with Leon: The Skilled’s hitman foremost character, the Resident Evil video games have lengthy additionally featured a “Skilled” issue setting. There’s additionally the Matilda handgun launched in Resident Evil 4, regarded as a reference to Portman’s character Mathilda, within the movie. Kamiya, nevertheless, mentioned the Matilda reference was not his doing, and is one thing another person from Capcom got here up with after his departure from the corporate.
Whereas followers had lengthy suspected the connections between the movie and one among Resident Evil’s foremost protagonists, it is nonetheless good to see it confirmed plainly. Kamiya went on to state he was shocked he’d by no means confirmed the reference earlier than, because it wasn’t one thing he was deliberately attempting to cover.
After Resident Evil 2, Kamiya went on to direct numerous main Capcom video games like Satan Could Cry and Okami earlier than leaving to co-found his personal studio, PlatinumGames. He left Platinum in 2023 to type one other studio, Clovers.
As for Leon, the character has turn into one of many foremost faces of Resident Evil after his starring position in Resident Evil 4 and subsequent remakes. He most lately starred as one of many foremost protagonists in Resident Evil Requiem, the place he returned to Raccoon Metropolis for the primary time for the reason that occasions of Resident Evil 2. It appears followers cannot get sufficient of Leon, as Capcom introduced Resident Evil Requiem to be the fastest-selling Resident Evil sport of all time, having offered over 7 million copies.
In a full circle second, Leon has even appeared in a number of Resident Evil movies, although typically as a facet character and never the primary protaganist. The newest Resident Evil movie, from Barbarian and Weapons director Zach Cregger, is slated to launch September 18 and is claimed to happen in the course of the Raccoon Metropolis Incident, albeit with an all-new story and solid of characters set throughout the sport’s universe.