Leon S. Kennedy


Leon Scott Kennedy is a fictional character in the Resident Evil horror media franchise by Capcom. He debuted as one of the two playable characters of two 1998 and 2019 video games Resident Evil 2. Leon later returned as the lead protagonist of Resident Evil 4 and as one of the seven playable characters of Resident Evil 6. Leon was met with positive critical reception.
During the events of Resident Evil 2, Leon is a rookie police officer who arrives in the doomed Raccoon City late for his first day on the job, only to confront a zombie outbreak first-hand. During the course of the game, he teams up with civilian survivor Claire Redfield, rescues the young Sherry Birkin, and is aided by the mysterious Ada Wong. Six years later, in Resident Evil 4, Leon returns as a secret service agent for the U.S. federal government assigned to rescue the president's daughter, Ashley, from a sinister cult. In Resident Evil 6, he continues to work for the U.S. government and reunites with Ada and an adult Sherry.
Leon also appears as a player character in several other video games, and has a leading role in three CG animated films: ' in 2008 and ' in 2012 and ' in 2017, in which he is a special agent for the government. The version of Leon in the live-action film series is portrayed by Johann Urb in '.

Appearances

In video games

Leon debuted in Resident Evil 2, as one of the game's two protagonists alongside Claire Redfield. In the story, he is a police officer on his first day who arrives in the Midwestern United States town of Raccoon City just after a viral outbreak started. He meets Claire by chance as she is chased by zombies created by the T-virus. Together, they flee towards the Raccoon City Police Department building but soon get separated and go on their own ways. They eventually meet again at the Umbrella Corporation underground research complex responsible for the viral outbreak. Along the way, Leon teams-up with Ada Wong, a mysterious woman eventually revealed as a spy seeking a sample of the even more powerful G-virus. During the final confrontation against the seemingly unstoppable T-103 Tyrant that constantly pursues the characters, Ada tosses Leon a rocket launcher to destroy the creature. In the end, Leon faces and kills the grotesquely mutated Umbrella scientist William Birkin, and escapes from the self-destructing facility along with Claire and Birkin's young daughter Sherry.
An epilogue obtained after completing ' reveals that Leon later joined the U.S. federal government. In ', Claire contacts Leon to relay information to her brother Chris while stuck on Rockfort Island. ' features re-imaginings of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil: Code Veronica; it also contains a new scenario set in 2002 that involves Leon and the soldier Jack Krauser on a mission to search for Javier Hidalgo, an ex-drug lord who had been reported to do business with Umbrella.
Leon is the protagonist of Resident Evil 4. In 2004, he is a special agent assigned to rescue the U.S. president's daughter Ashley Graham who is being held somewhere in Europe. Her kidnappers turn out to be part of an evil cult known as Los Illuminados, which has taken control of local villagers using parasites known as Las Plagas. As Leon searches for Ashley, he is captured and injected with the parasite. With help from Ada Wong and the Illuminados researcher Luis Sera, Leon is able to remove Las Plagas from his body and to rescue Ashley while confronting the cult. At the climax of the game, Leon kills the cult leader Osmund Saddler, but is forced to give a Plagas sample to Ada, who escapes in a helicopter, leaving Leon and Ashley to escape on a watercraft.
Leon is one of the protagonists in Resident Evil 6, alongside Chris Redfield and Jake Muller. While the game has up to eight playable characters over four different storylines, Leon was described as the "main character". In the game, he escapes from Tall Oaks, another American town overrun by zombies following a bioterrorist attack that killed the new U.S. president Adam Benford. Leon teams up with fellow survivor and President Benford's bodyguard, the Secret Service agent Helena Harper, to expose the conspiracy that led to the incident. In the later parts of the game, Leon reunites with a grown-up Sherry Birkin, who has become an operative for the U.S. government's Division of Security Operations, and the once again returning Ada Wong, and works to save the world from a global outbreak.
Leon also appears in several non-canonical games in the series. He stars alongside Barry Burton in the Game Boy Color-only Resident Evil Gaiden. Along with Claire, Leon is one of two playable characters in the browser and mobile game Resident Evil: Zombie Busters. In the third-person shooter ' revisiting the Raccoon City incident, the players control Umbrella operatives sent to kill any survivors, and certain actions can lead to Leon's death. He is also a player character in the "Heroes" mode of this game. At E3 in June 2018, Capcom announced a re-imagining of Resident Evil 2 and Leon was shown shooting a zombie.

In film

Leon teams up with Claire Redfield in the 2008 computer-animated film ' in order to stop another outbreak of the T-virus on American soil. He returns in the sequel to Degeneration, ', where he is sent to investigate the use of the Las Plagas during a civil war in Eastern Europe. Unlike the live-action film series, the animated films are canonically set in the same universe as the game series, serving as the prequels to Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6, respectively. A third computer-animated film starring Leon S. Kennedy, Chris Redfield and Rebecca Chambers was released in 2017. The main antagonist is Glenn Arias, who has a unique way of getting BOWs not to attack him by distinguishing the difference between ally and enemy, and Leon makes use of a motorcycle that made a special appearance in the film.
In an interview, director Paul W. S. Anderson said that, if ' succeeds, he would do a fifth film and would like Leon to make an appearance in it. Leon then appeared as a major character in ', "poised to rumble with Bad Rain and the defected Jill Valentine". The live-action version of Leon is leader of a mercenary group working for Wesker who teams up with the film's version of Ada to fight Umbrella, save Alice and rescue Jill. At the end of the film, he is one of the characters to survive.

Other appearances

Leon is featured in the 1998-1999 manhua Shēnghuà Wēijī 2. A romantic comedy retelling of the story of Resident Evil 2, centered on Leon, Claire and Ada, was released in the Taiwanese two-issue comic Èlíng Gǔbǎo II in 1999. Leon is also a character in the Image Comics comic book Resident Evil, and in the novels Resident Evil: City of the Dead and Resident Evil: Underworld by S. D. Perry. He appears in the crossover video game Project X Zone 2 as a solo unit. Leon appears as a Spirit in the Nintendo crossover video game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
In 2004, Capcom announced a series of outfits based on Leon's clothing, called "Leon's Collection". Other Leon merchandise include two action figures by Hot Toys, three action figures by NECA, and more from several other manufacturers, including by Palisades Toys, ToyBiz, and Capcom itself. At Halloween Horror Nights 2013 held at Universal Orlando, Leon was featured as one of two main characters in a haunted house called "Resident Evil: Escape from Raccoon City", based on Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.

Design and portrayal

Leon was created by Hideki Kamiya as a contrast to Chris Redfield from the original Resident Evil, who he felt was the "blunt, tough-guy type". Though Kamiya admitted that while he was a fan of characters like Chris, as it had already been done, he opted to take Leon's development in a different direction. He was surprised at how popular Leon had become, praising his later evolution into a laid back character for Resident Evil 4 and adding that he "fell in love all over again". Leon was created for Resident Evil 2 as the staff wanted to use a practicing Catholic character who had no experience with terrifying situations in contrast to using returning protagonists. While he was originally designed as a veteran police officer, he was changed to a rookie after the original version of Resident Evil 2 had been scrapped. Leon's design was inspired by the bloodhound of Capcom artist Isao Ohishi. Elements from Leon's backstory from the Resident Evil 2 manual indicating having had a split with a woman were based on Kamiya's own life. Kamiya further commented that the relationship Leon has with Ada is manipulative by the latter.
Leon was announced as Resident Evil 4s protagonist in November 2002. As the game was developed, it was intended that Leon would be infected with the Progenitor virus. This concept was expanded upon in 2004, when Leon was meant to contract a bizarre disease in his fight against the game's enemies. In a documentary explaining the conception of the game's characters, it was stated that Leon was intended to "look tougher, but also cool". His face in Resident Evil 4 was modeled after the game's animation department director Christian Duerre.
During the development of Resident Evil: Degeneration, producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi stated that he would like to make another game starring Leon as the main character. Resident Evil 5s producer Jun Takeuchi said that the series' fans "would really love" a video game featuring both Leon and Chris as the protagonists due to their popularity, and at the same time, it would be "pretty dramatic" if the two characters never met before the series would end. Resident Evil 6s producer Kobayashi took a liking to Leon and decided to include him in the game since "he is central to the story".
Leon is voiced by Paul Haddad in Resident Evil 2. Paul Mercier takes the role in Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil: Degeneration and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. Mercier remembers being happy with the localizer, Shinsaku Ohara, and the team in the making of the game ever since its early demo. Despite initial issues in the making of Resident Evil 4, Mercier was relieved his work as Leon was not removed and also felt joy when having the opportunity to work with director Ginny Mcswain. Nevertheless, Capcom requested Mercier to rerecord some lines because they felt Leon sounded too old for his age. While Leon acts sarcastic in Resident Evil 4, he behaves colder in the first CGI movie; Mercier believes Capcom wanted to make a different take on Leon when developing the movie. Nevertheless, the actor expressed joy in the making of the movie. For the prequel Darkside Chronicles, Mercier expressed difficulties in voicing the younger Leon while still understanding how different he was in this title due to hardships he faces. Mercier was replaced by Matthew Mercer in Resident Evil 6 and Resident Evil: Damnation. Mercer described himself as a fan and friend of Mercier and said that he felt honored to take over as the voice of Leon In an interview, he also detailed his interpretation of Leon and talked about the changes being made to the character. In the Resident Evil 2 commercial directed by George A. Romero, Leon was portrayed by Brad Renfro. For the remake of the original Resident Evil 2, Leon was modeled after male model Eduard Badaluta.
About Johann Urb's casting in Resident Evil: Retribution, the film's producer and director Paul W. S. Anderson said, "You have no idea how difficult it is to find someone with Leon Kennedy's hair has to be manly and has to have these long bangs," adding that "if you put photographs of them side-by-side, it's almost like he was manufactured by Capcom." Anderson said that the decision to include Leon and other game characters in the film was "fan-driven". Urb mentioned that he learned the video game Leon's mannerisms from watching clips posted on YouTube, commenting that "he doesn't have a high-pitched voice. I feel like he talks how I naturally talk, which is kind of slower." Speaking about the relationship between Leon and Ada, Urb said: "It's kind of like Mulder and Scully and an X-Files type of deal, where you're waiting for it to happen, but it never does. Maybe in the next one, I'm hoping."
To meet modern expectations of the remake, the team decided to alter some character designs 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. His facial features were based on model Eduard Badaluta.

Reception

Since his appearance in Resident Evil 2, Leon has had a positive reception. In 2010, Nintendo Power listed him as their 14th favorite Nintendo gaming hero, stating that he went from a "glorified meter maid with a bad haircut" to a tough guy. In 2009, GameSpot chose him as one of the 64 characters to compete in their poll for the title "All Time Greatest Game Hero". In a 2010 Famitsu poll, Leon was voted by readers as the 31st most popular video game character in Japan. In the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition from 2011, he was voted as the 36th best video game character. In 2012, GamesRadar ranked him as the 11th most "influential and badass" hero in video games. Empire also included Leon on their list of the 50 greatest video game characters, ranking him 44th. IGN ranked Leon as the best playable Resident Evil character, writing Leon "quickly became one of the most capable characters in the series, matching Chris in hand-to-hand combat and being referred to as a genius by Ada." WhatCulture ranked Leon as the 8th sexiest male video game character of all time.
IGN has featured Leon on the list of things they would like to see in Resident Evil 6, calling him one of the two main characters of the series along with Chris Redfield, and describing him in the article about the best zombie fighters as the "straight-laced hero" of Resident Evil. The IGN character guide made another comparison between Chris and Leon, calling the latter the "determined guy clawing his way up the ladder". Gameplanet's Aylon Herbet wrote that if both Leon and Chris would share starring roles in a Resident Evil game it would be "awesome", believing both of them to be the main protagonists of the series. In 2010, GameDaily predicted that Leon, along with Claire Redfield, would be the protagonist of the next main Resident Evil title, citing the series' pattern of alternating protagonists and Leon's last such appearance in Resident Evil 4. In 2013, GamesRadar staff included Leon among the 30 best characters in the three decades of Capcom's history, stating that "he’s been battling Chris Redfield for the top spot as resident Resident Evil lead, but to us there’s no contest between the cool, fashionable Leon and the bullish Chris."
IGN also repeatedly named him a character they wished to see in the crossover fighting series Super Smash Bros., describing him an "intimidating hero", a "unique breed of ass kicker" and one of the best things to happen to the Resident Evil series. GamesRadar described Leon's Resident Evil 4 design as "David Bowie piloting the Memphis Belle", stating that, while it was appealing, the hairstyle required modifications for encounters in the games. In 2010, Game Informer chose Leon as one of the 20 Capcom characters they would like to see in a rumored crossover fighting game titled Namco Vs Capcom, his Namco equivalent being Nightmare from the Soul series: "The only man with enough experience and courage to take out this mutated menace is none other than Leon S. Kennedy. We bet this fight ends with a rocket launcher." In 2011, Ryan Woo of Complex ranked Leon among the fourth most stylish video game character, opining he the best dressed person in the Resident Evil series and "Jill just looks goofy in comparison."
Together with Ada Wong, Leon was featured in The Inquirers 2007 list of the most memorable video game love teams. In 2011, "a highly disfunctional relationship" between Leon and Ada was ranked the ninth top video game romance by James Hawkins of Joystick Division. According to PlayStation Universe's Mike Harradence, "we've seen Kennedy transition from a likeable, wet-behind-the-ears, love-sick puppy to a wise-cracking, super smooth government agent." In 2012, Complex included him on a list of the 25 "douchiest" video game characters for "his sarcastic and moody attitude in RE4", adding that, while Leon "stepped it up in the series by maturing and becoming a true hero", they "enjoyed the game more when Leon didn't speak." The character was one of the childhood crushes of MTV's Kendra Beltran, who in 2013 wrote: "I still can't forget the rate my heart raced when my eyes set on Leon. I'm sure you felt and continue to feel the same." In 2014, La Nueva España included the "intelligent, quick-drawing and strong" Leon among the top ten sexiest video game characters of both genders, describing him as a "reinforced concrete wall with a porcelain face."