Resident Evil 9 Won't Focus On The Winters Family
Resident Evil 9 is "shuffling" into view, as the next chapter of Capcom's zombie shooter prepares to crawl out of the grave and into our lives. It's been 26 years since we first stepped inside the Spencer Mansion, and after the runaway success of 2017's Resident Evil 7 and 2021's Resident Evil Village, there are high hopes for the next entry in the Resident Evil lineage.
While earlier entries in the franchise jumped around between protagonists like Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield and Claire Redfield, and Ada Wong, the later games have had a more coherent arc with Ethan Winters. After making his debut in RE7, Ethan was the MVP of Village. Although his story was seemingly finished here, we were told the mythical RE9 would round off the Winters Trilogy.
Which Characters Are In Resident Evil 9?
Speaking to IGN at Tokyo Game Show, Director Kento Kinoshita explained how Capcom is "creating the Shadows of Rose story to conclude the Winters family saga." Although this means the four-hour Village DLC will have a seemingly finite storyline, let's look a little deeper at the facts.
Shadows of Rose follows a teenage version of Ethan's daughter. Picking up with Village's post-credit time jump and teases that Rose has her own powers, the DLC looks like a trippy dive into the consciousness of the Megamacyte. With this narrative, it means Shadows of Rose could do literally anything and bring anyone back. We're expecting to at least see Ethan, but if we don't get Lady Dimitrescu, we'll be seriously annoyed.
The implication that Shadows of Rose concludes the Winters story suggests Resident Evil 9 will focus on a whole new story. Just like Chris appeared in RE7 and returned for Village, we're guessing there will be newcomers alongside a who's who of Resi favourites will be making their long-awaited return - we're looking at you, Jill.
What's The Resident Evil 9 Story?
Only recently, we covered a supposedly massive Resident Evil 9 leak that supposedly spoiled some major beats from the ninth mainline game. Apparently, the game could be called Apocalypse and will focus on a town in the West, with a female bioweapon that assists you and enemies like Wendigos. This all appeared on the sketchy 4chan and was written off by some as a hoax, but given that there's no mention of Rose, it could be the real deal.
There's no Resident Evil 9 release right now, and given that we've waited so long for Shadows of Rose, it's not like the title is suddenly going to drop next year. If you're looking to Capcom for answers, Producer Masachika Kawata warned they could "absolutely not" share any further details about the franchise's plans beyond Shadows of Rose. Hopefully, Shadows of Rose will give us the answers we need.
