English Paul Haddad (Resident Evil 2)[5] Paul Mercier (Resident Evil 4, Degeneration, The Darkside Chronicles)[5][6] Christian Lanz (Operation Raccoon City)[5] Matthew Mercer (Resident Evil 6, Damnation, Revelations 2, Vendetta, Death Island)[5][6] Nick Apostolides (Resident Evil 2 and 4 remake, Infinite Darkness)[7][8][9] John Patneaude (State of Survival)[10] Japanese Toshiyuki Morikawa (Infinite Darkness, Damnation, Resident Evil 6, Project X Zone 2, remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 4)[9][11] Yuki Kaji (Welcome to Raccoon City)[12]
Motion capture
Various
Jason Faunt (Resident Evil 6)[13] Nick Apostolides (Resident Evil 2 and 4 remake)[7][8]
Leon Scott Kennedy[a] is a character in the survival horror video game series Resident Evil, which was created by the Japanese company Capcom. Leon was introduced alongside Claire Redfield as one of the two player characters in the video game Resident Evil 2 (1998). The character was initially conceived as a veteran police officer for the prototype of the game but Noboru Sugimura redesigned him as a young rookie. During the events of Resident Evil 2, Leon arrives late for his first day at work in the doomed Raccoon City, and is confronted by a zombie outbreak.
Video-game publications have described Leon as one of the most-popular and most-iconic video-game characters. Several critics lauded both his personality in Resident Evil 4 (2005) and his redesign in the remakes for further enhancing the character's sex appeal.
Concept and design
Leon Scott Kennedy was introduced as one of two playable protagonists, alongside college student Claire Redfield, in Capcom's 1998 survival horror video game Resident Evil 2.[15][16] Although the game's creative director Hideki Kamiya preferred the "blunt, tough-guy type", he created Leon as "someone with weaknesses" to differentiate him and take the game in a different direction from Chris Redfield and the first Resident Evil (1996) game.[17] He was conceived as a veteran Raccoon City police officer in the first prototype.[18][19] During the game's development, the writer Noboru Sugimura was brought in to overhaul the story, which he believed lacked depth and conceptual coherence.[15][18] Sugimura significantly overhauled the game and re-conceptualized Leon as a young rookie.[15][18] Leon's appearance was designed by the artists Isao Ohishi and Ryoji Shimogama.[20]
Leon is an American of Italian descent.[14] According to the manual for Resident Evil 2 (1998), Leon arrives late to his job due to a fight with his girlfriend, which Kamiya later said was based on his own life.[21] Leon develops an ambiguous romance with the mercenary and spy Ada Wong and they save each other's lives throughout the game.[22][23] In the remake of Resident Evil 2 (2019), more time was spent developing Ada's and Leon's relationship, which the creative team felt had progressed too quickly in the original game.[24] Executive producer Jun Takeuchi suggested the kiss between Ada and Leon occur earlier in the remake, which Kamiya said "makes Ada feel more manipulative of Leon".[25] Leon's design was adjusted to better match the more-photorealistic setting; for example, Leon no longer wears large shoulder pads, which were added to distinguish his original, low-polygon model.[26]
Ada's and Leon's relationship is further explored in Resident Evil 4 (2005) and its minigame "Separate Ways".[23][27][28] Kamiya was surprised by Leon's popularity and enjoyed his evolution into a "really cool looking guy" for Resident Evil 4, adding he "fell in love all over again".[17] In a documentary about the game's characters, it was stated Leon was intended to "look tougher, but also cool".[29] The designer Masaki Yamanaka said the change was due to the experience he has gained since Resident Evil 2. Leon was made to maintain its "coolness" but Yamanaka did not want him to be "too buffed out".[29] In the remake of Resident Evil 4 (2023), Leon's design was modified to emphasize his experience and ability, and to show he had changed between games.[30] Unlike in the original, he is able to parry and dodge attacks, and perform roundhouse kicks and suplexes.[30] The team also aimed to expand Leon's characterization and relationship with the president's daughter Ashley Graham.[31][32] Capcom released a promotional anime titled Resident Evil Masterpiece Theater, which depicts the story of Leon and Ashley.[33]
Resident Evil 5's (2009) producer Jun Takeuchi said the series' fans want a video game featuring both Leon and Chris as the protagonists at the same time, due to their popularity. Takeuchi said it would be "pretty dramatic" if the two characters never met before the series ended;[34] the meeting happens in Resident Evil 6 (2012).[35]Resident Evil 6's producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi liked Leon and decided to include him in the game because "he is central to the story".[36] In Leon's initial design, he was intended to be a civilian, while his Chinese outfit is blue and is intended to look stylish, contrasting with Chris's military equipment.[37]
Jason Faunt performed Leon's motion capture in Resident Evil 6,[13] while Nick Apostolides performed the voice and motion capture in the remakes of Resident Evil 2 (2019) and Resident Evil 4 (2023), and in the animated film Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness.[7][8][9] Leon's facial features in Resident Evil 2 (2019) and Resident Evil 4 (2023) were based on those of the Romanian model Eduard Badaluta.[2][3] In Japanese, Toshiyuki Morikawa voiced Leon in Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, Damnation, Resident Evil 6, Project X Zone 2, Resident Evil 2 (2019) and Resident Evil 4 (2023).[9][11]
Resident Evil 2 takes place in 1998 in the fictional American metropolitan area of Raccoon City.[32][39] Leon Scott Kennedy is a rookie police officer who arrives in the city just after the beginning of a zombie outbreak, for which the pharmaceutical company Umbrella Corporation is responsible.[32] Leon meets Claire Redfield and they flee toward the Raccoon City Police Department building but get separated.[32] As he explores the building, Leon meets Ada Wong, an FBI agent who wants obtain a sample of the G-virus.[32] While searching for the virus, Leon and Ada find an underground laboratory,[32] where they meet the Umbrella scientist Annette Birkin, who reveals Ada is a mercenary. Ada claims the G-virus but she is shot by Birkin in the ensuing struggle and seemingly falls to her death.[32] The facility is then primed to self-destruct; Leon makes a hasty escape but encounter T-103 Tyrant. During the confrontation, Ada, who survived the fall, tosses Leon a rocket launcher to destroy T-103 Tyrant.[40] Leon rejoins Claire, who has secured a train that leads to the surface and they, along with Birkin's young daughter Sherry Birkin,[32][40] escape before Raccoon City is destroyed by a nuclear strike as part of a U.S. government cover-up.[39]
Leon returns in Resident Evil 4, which is set in 2004. Now a special agent, he is tasked with rescuing the U.S. president's daughter Ashley Graham, who has been abducted in Spain. Upon his arrival, Leon discovers Ashley's abductors are a mysterious cult known as Los Illuminados, which has taken control of villagers using parasites known as "Las Plagas".[32][41] During the rescue mission, Leon runs into Ada, whom he had not seen since Raccoon City,[32] and Jack Krauser, his former special-operations partner whom he believed dead.[42] At the game's climax, Leon kills the cult leader Osmund Saddler but is forced to give a sample of the parasite to Ada, who escapes in a helicopter, leaving Leon and Ashley to escape on a jet ski.[32][41]
Leon's history with Krauser is explored in Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (2009). Two years before the events of Resident Evil 4, Leon and Krauser undertake "Operation Javier", a mission to the jungles of South America to apprehend Javier Hidalgo, a drug lord who is working with Umbrella. Leon and Krauser locate and kill Javier but during the operation, Krauser grows jealous and resentful of Leon's professional success.[42]
Leon is also a protagonist in Resident Evil 6 (2012) alongside Chris, Jake Muller and Ada.[43] While the game has four player characters with different storylines, Leon was described as the "main character" by Kobayashi.[36] In 2013, Leon is providing security for the President of the United States as he prepares to give a public speech revealing the events in Raccoon City. Before he can begin, however, the President is attacked by a bioweapon that turns him into a zombie and Leon is forced to kill him.[32][44] In the aftermath, Leon is accused of orchestrating the attack and assassinating the President. Ada arrives to reveal the culprit was National Security AdvisorDerek C. Simmons, who created of the new C-virus.[32][44] To clear his name, Leon teams up with the secret service agent Helena Harper,[44] and they pursue Simmons to China.[32] Ada and Leon defeat Simmons.[45]
Leon appears in several of the Resident Evil live-action film series. In a 2010 interview, the director Paul W. S. Anderson said if Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) succeeds, he would direct a fifth film and would like Leon to appear in it.[46] Leon iss a major character in Resident Evil: Retribution (2012),[47] in which he leads the Resistance and teams up with Alice to battle Umbrella.[48] Anderson said he felt a lot of pressure to find an actor who was a convincing action hero and had a similar hairstyle.[47] Leon does not did not appear in the final film Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016), apparently dying off-screen.[49] Leon also appears in the live-action reboot film Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021).[4]
Leon features in novelizations of the films and games.[75] Several comic books based on the games were released,[76][77][78] and he is a character in Bandai's Resident Evil Deck Building Card Game (2011).[79] The character was featured in Resident Evil-themed attractions at Universal Studios Japan and Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights.[80] Leon's likeness has been used on figurines, outfits, statues, dioramas, gun replicas, standees, keychains, watches, and perfumes.[81]
Critical reception
Guinness World Records and several video game journalists, have named Leon Scott Kennedy as among the most-popular and most-iconic video game characters.[82][83] Rachel Weber of GamesRadar+ described Leon as one of the greatest video game characters, praising his resilience and his ability to handle crises throughout the series.[84][85] Magazines have also praised him as the most-likable Resident Evil character.[86][87][88]IGN editors described him as one of the best Resident Evil protagonists due to his everyman persona, likening him to John McClane as "an ordinary guy who becomes extraordinary under adverse circumstances". They also noted Leon is among the most-capable and composed characters in the series.[88]
Critics have praised Leon's character growth in Resident Evil 4.[89][90]Nintendo Power described his change as going from a "glorified meter maid with a bad haircut" to a tough guy,[91] while Polygon's Harri Chan praised Leon for his "schlocky action-movie energy".[92] His relationship with Ada Wong was praised by Matt Kim of VG247, noting their "spy vs. spy thing" makes for enjoyable and entertaining cutscenes.[93] In the book Immersion, Narrative, and Gender Crisis in Survival Horror Video Games, the academic Andrei Nae described Leon's persona as a hypermasculine and likened Leon to Ethan Thomas from Condemned: Criminal Origins, saying both characters are empowered to defeat all their opponents in direct combat and reassert themselves as white, middle-class males. Nae also stated their hypermasculinity is incomplete because neither of them can fully contain gender and class otherness, which also shows why Leon fails to bring Ada within the ambit of patriarchal control.[94]
Leon's characterization in the remade games has also been praised. His appearance in Resident Evil 2 (2019) has been lauded by fans and Cass Marshall of Polygon said the remake "revives the sexy side of its star".[95] According to Ana Diaz from Polygon, in Resident Evil 4 (2023), Leon's sex appeal inspired fans to make and share "thirsty" videos of the character on the video-sharing platform TikTok.[96] Ashley Bardhan of Kotaku reported thousands of fans said they purposefully injured Leon during the game, particularly in Dead by Daylight, to hear his moans of pain, which they interpreted sexually.[97] Jennifer Culp of Polygon described Leon as attractive and said the "swoon-inducing crush effect" of Leon is not about his hair, but his "Boy Scout determination to see the mission safely concluded".[98]
Notes
^Known in Japan as レオン・スコット・ケネディ (Reon Sukotto Kenedi)
キャスト｜バイオハザード ダムネーション [Cast｜Resident Evil Damnation] (in Japanese). biohazardcg2.com. Archived from the original on May 4, 2013. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
"CAPCOM：バイオハザード RE:2 公式サイト - カプコン" [CAPCOM: Resident Evil RE:2 Official Site - Capcom]. capcom.co.jp (in Japanese). Archived from the original on November 20, 2018. Retrieved November 19, 2018.
^ abMiller, Zachary (January 29, 2012). "Resident Evil: The Story So Far". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
Jennings, Stephanie (2018). "Women Agents and Double-Agents: Theorizing Feminine Gaze in Video Games". In Gray, Kishonna L.; Vossen, Emma; Voorhees, Gerald (eds.). Feminism In Play. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 235–249. ISBN978-3319905389. Retrieved July 7, 2024.
