Resident Evil Village's 'Secret' Villain Revealed
Albert Wesker, Ramon Salazar, William Birkin, the Ashford Twins, Eveline Baker - the long-running Resident Evil franchise has dished up some truly vile villains over the years. Now, as we head toward Resident Evil Village, Capcom has teased another big bad to contend with. While most of the eighth main entry's marketing has been taken up by the towering Lady Dimitrescu, we guess she's not the one pulling the strings. As well as the mysterious man in the round glasses, some new artwork has revealed another villain.
Picking up with the story of Resident Evil 7's Ethan Winters, it looks like he's struggling to shake off the shackles of what happened to him at the Baker House. Thrown back into the supernatural world of monsters and madmen, Resident Evil Village takes Ethan to a very different setting of rural Europe. Capcom is channelling some serious Resident Evil 4 vibes, which is only a good thing considering the 2005 GameCube favourite is arguably the best in the series. Players have been piecing together various snippets of the story, but thanks to a new poster, we might've got our first look at the game's big bad.
Who is the Resident Evil Village secret villain?
Shared by twitter user @11masa0000, the promo art includes Ethan as the main focus. Beneath him is a brooding Chris Redfield, holding Ethan's baby called Rosemary. The most interesting takeaway is the masked person underneath that. No one matching this look has appeared anywhere in the footage and promos so far, begging the question of who exactly this is. It's hard to determine their gender, but the general consensus is it is some sort of masked menace with glowing eyes. They have a gladiator-esque appearance that looks a bit like Fortnite's Menace of RE 4's Garrador. Given the prominence of the villain and their intimidating visage, it's not too much of a leap to assume they could be the final boss.
Even if Lady D has been tipped as the woman in charge, the recent reveal of gameplay footage showed she was working for someone called Mother Miranda. Could Mother Miranda be the old crone that was seen in the very first footage last year? Elsewhere, there was a mention of Ethan escaping "that fool Heisenberg", who could be the round glasses man who was also a talking point of the first trailer. It still leaves the identity of the mysterious masked person up to interpretation. Don't worry, we've got one idea of who it could be.
Is the masked person really the villain of Resident Evil Village?
One eagle-eyed fan suggested it could be Albert Wesker behind the mask. After emerging as the big bad of the franchise in general, Wesker met a fiery end in Resident Evil 5 when his Uroboros Project was ruined and he was blasted into a volcano by Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar. With this being Resident Evil, a death-defying resurrection has become commonplace and no one is really buying that Wesker is really out for the count. After sitting out the last few games, adding him to Village would be one hell of a twist. There's clearly something up with Chris, and with his own potential villainous arc on the horizon, Wesker could also settle his unfinished business with the S.T.A.R.S. agent.
The villain's eyes have a similar glow to Dimitrescu and her brood, suggesting it could also be the intimidating Mother Miranda. Whatever Mother Miranda is working on, it has something to do with "the ceremony" she mentioned on the phone. Finally, someone suggested it could be Mia Winters. We know Ethan's wife has a part to play in the game, however, it's unclear what traumatic event sends him to Castle Dimitrescu and why he seems to be alone. Thankfully, there's another Resident Evil showcase planned for later this month, which will hopefully give us some much-needed story details ahead of the game's full release on May 7.
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