Image credit: Capcom
Leon Kennedy possibly being married by the time we see him in Resident Evil Requiem has thrown the community into uproar. Not only would this be a major narrative milestone for the character, and a controversial one, it’s also likely to disappoint the thirsty fans who’ve allowed themselves to forget Leon is a fictional character. And, look, we get it.
But the main bone of contention is that it feels a bit anticlimactic for a character who’s often been portrayed as being married to the job of protecting the world from bio-terror. It also tramples on fan expectations of where – and with whom – Leon would end up.
So, if Leon really has tied the knot, who’s it with? There are a few contenders based on his interactions. And from what we’ve seen across the series, Leon appears to like the ladies most, and they like him right back.
Angela Miller
Leon met Angela during the events of the first animated movie, Resident Evil: Degeneration, and the two shared a connection. This is most apparent at the end of the film when Leon delivers a pep talk to the survivors. It’s subtle, but it’s implied that both characters have their eyes on each other.
Degeneration is set between RE4 and RE5, so if Leon did end up marrying Angela, then the couple has likely been together for a long time. However, Leon wasn’t wearing a ring in RE6, so if anything ever happened between them, it’s a mystery.
Ingrid Hunnigan
Hunnigan is Leon’s overwatch and HQ support when he’s out on missions, providing him with intel and advice when he’s in a tough spot. Their relationship is mostly professional; however, at the end of the original Resident Evil 4, Leon flirts with her before being shot down by his no-nonsense colleague.
Despite rejecting him in RE4, Hunnigan appears to care a great deal about Leon, putting her own career and possibly even life on the line to help him and Helena in Resident Evil 6. However, we’d wager that Hunnigan and Leon are just friends and colleagues, but who knows what has happened in between RE6 and Resident Evil Requiem.
Helena Harper
Leon and Helena get off to a bad start in Resident Evil 6. He blames her for the death of his friend, President Adam Benford, and is prepared to lock her up and throw away the key. However, he warms up to her during the adventure, comforting her after the death of her sister, and even arranges for her to be exonerated after learning the truth.
By the end of RE6, Leon and Helena have grown close and endured a lot together. However, whether wedding bells are in their future seems like a bit of a stretch. Helena was also not an especially popular character in a not especially popular game.
Ashley Graham
Leon was sent by President Graham to rescue Ashley from Los Illuminados in Resident Evil 4, and the pair became quite the team. They’d both escape together, and in the original RE4, Ashley would make a pretty overt pass at Leon while they rode off together on a jetski.
At the time, Leon gently turned her down and even admitted to her that Ada Wong represented a part of him he “couldn’t let go” of, which she accepted gracefully. It would also be pretty inappropriate for Leon to get involved with Ashley, his boss’s daughter.
However, who knows what’s happened since then? President Graham was replaced by Benford, his Vice President, making a relationship between Ashley and Leon less of an issue. So, Ashley remains a contender until we receive confirmation to the contrary.
Claire Redfield
Claire and Leon teamed up in Resident Evil 2 and shared the spotlight as dual protagonists. They escaped Raccoon City with Sherry Birkin and continued working together to bring down Umbrella. While the two share a platonic partnership in the original RE2, there is some awkward flirting between them in the remake. However, nothing ever seems to come of it.
Leon and Claire remain close friends and have interacted with each other various times across the series, mostly in the animated films, which are canon to the games. There is tension between Chris Redfield, Claire’s brother, and Leon in RE6, and neither Leon nor Sherry mentions Chris being Leon’s brother-in-law in RE9.
So, we’re pretty confident that Clare can be removed from the running and that the pair are just bonded by their shared experience in Raccoon City and their joint commitment to battling bioterror wherever they find it.
Ada Wong
Okay, this is the big one. Ada was established as a potential love interest for Leon in RE2, and the pair even shared a kiss in the remake. Ada would betray Leon in pursuit of the G-Virus, only to seemingly give her life to save him.
However, Ada survived and met Leon again in RE4, where the two joined forces to battle Los Illuminados. Ada would flirt with Leon again, but the DSO agent remained frosty to her advances. After Leon saved her from Saddler, Ada would once again steal a sample of the virus from him at gunpoint.
In the remake, Ada invites Leon to escape with her, suggesting more than just a helicopter ride. Leon would refuse, and Ada would give him her jetski key so that he and Ashley could escape separately. The pair would help each other again in RE6, the connection between them still painfully apparent to both characters, but they would go their separate ways at the end.
If Leon is married to Ada in RE9, then that seems a pretty anticlimactic way for their relationship to blossom. After sharing so many adventures, did one just arrive on the other’s doorstep one day with flowers? Matrimony also dilutes the agency of characters like Ada. For example, would marriage mean she gives up life as a superspy and attends PTA meetings?
If Leon is indeed married, it seems like there’s more to it, and that this is something Capcom can explore in DLC or future games. If Leon is married to someone other than Ada, then this quietly implies the end to their will-they/won’t-they dynamic that’s existed since RE2. But if Leon and Ada are married, then there’s bound to be a dramatic story behind how that came about.
At the same time, Resident Evil isn’t Brigerton and isn’t about who ends up with whom. Each game exists to provide an experience where players battle bioweapons, so happy romantic endings aren’t really the priority. We fully expect Leon and Ada to do this dance forever, as this is what makes the characters fun to check in on.
Capcom may well bring Ada and Leon’s story to a conclusion one day, but fans shouldn’t get their hopes up about the pair playing house together – whatever happens will need to be distinctly Resident Evil, which doesn’t bode well for at least one of them.
FAQs
Nobody is exactly sure. Leon can be seen wearing a ring, but whether or not this is a throwaway design choice or the mark of something deeper remains to be seen. Capcom has been coy about the answer, so it remains a mystery.
Yes absolutely. Leon’s wedding ring could be a big tease by Capcom of an incoming plot development. Or it could mean nothing at all.
Not really. Leon and Claire almost became surrogate parents to Sherry after the Raccoon City incident, though RE6 makes it clear they grew estranged. We felt like Leon and Sherry had an older brother/younger sister dynamic in Resident Evil Requiem, considering each other family.
Massively. Be it Resident Evil 2, 4, 6, or the movie, Damnation, when Leon shows up, Ada is often not far behind. Resident Evil Requiem bucks this trend, but we’re of the view that this is deliberate, and that we could see Ada in a future DLC.
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