After months of speculation, Capcom confirms the mysterious hooded guy from Resident Evil Requiem trailers is "a newly created character for this storyline" because "we don't always want to just lean on surprise comebacks"

Resident Evil Requiem director Koshi Nakanishi and producer Masato Kumazawa have confirmed that the mysterious hooded person featured prominently in the recent Gamescom trailer isn't Leon Kennedy, Chris Redfield, Ethan Winters, or any other character from existing Resident Evil lore. He's just an entirely new character created specifically for Requiem.

Fans have been theorizing about the identity of the hooded killer for months, and after he showed up in the latest trailer and killed both the hotel manager and, seemingly, protagonist Grace Ashcroft's mom, the speculation only ramped up. Could he be a familiar face turned evil? Or maybe a familiar face that was evil then and is just still evil now? Apparently, no, this is the first game he's ever appeared in, according to Nakanishi.

"Everyone is convinced [the hooded figure] has to be a reveal of a returning cast member, and there is speculation that it 'must be this person' or 'must be that person'. But we don't always want to just lean on surprise comebacks like these," Nakanishi and Kumazawa told TheGamer. "The hooded person is a new character. We will confirm that much. In this case, it's a newly created character for this storyline, so it's a bit of a previously undisclosed detail, but hopefully it contextualizes how we're approaching the game's story."

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Probably the biggest mystery at the heart of Resident Evil Requiem is Leon Kennedy. There's a lot of references to Raccoon City in the trailers for the game, which opens up questions about not only him, but whether other series mainstays like Chris Redfield, Claire Redfield, Jill Valentine, etc., will make appearances, playable or otherwise.

Capcom has called Leon Kennedy "quite a bad match for horror" and insisted Grace Ashcroft is "the new main character," which seems pretty cut and dry, but we won't know for sure until Resident Evil Requiem launches on February 27.

Opinion: Resident Evil Requiem's new trailer makes a great case for Grace Ashcroft, not boring old Leon Kennedy, being the anxiety-riddled hero we need for the series' scariest entry yet