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Pre-Launch WMG's
Blue Umbrella is being framed
Since the previous game established that Blue Umbrella was made by the old company's employees and soldiers, they are being framed by a second party responsible for Chris' behavior, who are either old Umbrella's remnants, Los Illuminados, Maria Gomez from Resident Evil: Vendetta, The Connections, or a new faction who are aware of Umbrella's negative reception from the Raccoon City incident, and an Umbrella logo is shown looking like the Blue Umbrella's. In fact, it might be Nicholai's employers whom he mentioned in Resident Evil 3 (Remake).- Jossed: Blue Umbrella does not appear at all. Near the end of the game, it's revealed that Big Bad Mother Miranda is a Voluntary Shapeshifter and the "Mia" that they killed was the former. Nobody In-Universe and out realized it because she was faking her death and it took a hell of a lot to kill Miranda.
Daniel Fabron is going to be featured in the game.
At roughly the same time as the first official trailer for Resident Evil Village launched, featuring a hat-wearing man in round-rimmed sunglasses, Resident Evil: Resistance updated with a new Mastermind called "Daniel Fabron", who looks very similar to that man with his hat off. Given Capcom's focus on reusing RE Engine art assets where possible, it seems very likely that this Umbrella-aligned scientist will reappear.- Jossed: The guy with the hat and sunglasses is a brand new character called Lord Karl Heisenberg.
The Yateveo will be a boss in the game.
Based on the above, the Yateveo is a Man-Eating Plant from Resident Evil: Resistance with no direct appearances in the franchise before, unlike any of the other monsters in that game. Given the rumors of Natalia as a secondary Big Bad thanks to her receiving the Brain Uploading from Alex Wesker, who is the Mastermind with exclusive access to the Yateveo in Resistance, it seems very appropriate that the Yateveo could make an appearance as a boss in RE8.Jossed
The woman in white is Natalia/Alex
The game is likely set in the 2020s, meaning Natalia would be 20+ years old. Both endings to Revelations 2 implied that Alex Wesker has essentially hijacked Natalia's person, taking control over her. Notably, the woman is shown to take great care of her looks and live lavishly in a castle above the poor people below (much like Alex in Revelations 2 with her tower). Indeed, the woman even has a hairstyle strikingly similar to both Alex and Natalia and wears all white, similar to Alex's white pants suit. She even carries herself in a way reminiscent of Alex. It's entirely possible that Chris is in the region because of Natalia, given that she was adopted by Barry and his family the last we saw of her.- Jossed:. The third trailer confirms her to be Lady Alcina Dimitrescu, whose family has been ruling this area for generations.
"His story comes to a close" is about Barry
Going off the above theory, that the woman in white is Natalia/Alex, it's possible that Alex killed Barry outright after she took control over Natalia. Speculation over this line has led people to consider it to be about Ethan or Chris, but a more shocking (and tragic) swerve would have Barry killed instead. Plus, Alex would no doubt hold a grudge against Barry for his role in trying to destroy her, and would likely want revenge. Barry would certainly hesitate to attack Natalia (like he does in the bad ending to Revelations 2) giving Alex the opportunity to quickly kill him.- Jossed: They meant Ethan, who stays behind in a Heroic Sacrifice to set off a bomb capable of destroying the Mold.
Chris Redfield becomes the main villain Ethan must stop
Chris will be an example of a hero who lives long enough to see himself become the villain. Its hinted in the trailer that he kills Mia, who might have turned crazy again, and all the other crazy things that happen finally causes him to snap and he becomes a Sociopathic Soldier determined to destroy all of the bio threats. Since this is Chris' final story, the twist will be that Ethan won't be the playable character, Chris will be, but he will be a Villain Protagonist for a not so different Umbrella.- Jossed: He tried to assassinate Mother Miranda, who took Mia's form to fool Ethan.
No, they aren't actual werewolves
Some reactions to the trailer have ranged from shock to anger that the game seemingly introduces supernatural elements in the form of werewolves, witches, and vampires. This isn't too different to the trailers and demo for Resident Evil 7: biohazard, where fans believed ghosts would be present in the final game. Much like there, these supernatural elements are entirely biological. Instead, they're unique mutations caused by whatever virus/biohazard is in the game.- It could be like Las Plagas, an ancient, naturally-occurring, organism/viral agent with mutative symptoms. Hell, this may very well have inspired Vampirism/Lycanthropy in the RE Universe.
- Confirmed: The monsters were created by being infected with a "Cadou" parasite
Mia was infected
The reason why Chris shot and killed Mia was because she was infected and was about to kill Ethan while Ethan was unaware of this, this would explain why he shoots her corpse multiple times so he can make sure she won't get back up.- Jossed: It was Miranda disguised as Mia that Chris shot.
Chris is a Hero Antagonist, even if he is slightly Jumping Off the Slippery Slope.
Continuing on from the above theory, Mia was infected, putting Ethan or the surrounding area at risk. Ethan is rightfully confused and in despair, opposing Chris without knowing the full story. While Chris is ruthless in his pursuit and murder of Mia, it was for the good of humanity. This could explain why Chris apologized before shooting Mia.- Zigzagged: Chris is still entirely on the side of good, but since he didn't bother explaining why he and his team barged into the Winters' home and shot Mia, he initially comes off as a Hero Antagonist, until The Reveal that "Mia" was actually Mother Miranda in disguise. His abrasive demeanor doesn't help in this regard.
Leon will show up.
Come on, it's already confirmed that more previous protagonists and antagonists will show up, there was Chris' appearance in 7, and the village/castle seems like a huge love letter to 4. Why not? He could even have yet another clash with Chris, maybe even have a huge Good Versus Good Mexican Standoff with Ethan.- Not to mention it’s become kind of a tradition for Leon to show up in the even-numbered entries of the main series.
- If Leon does show up, he better have a rocket launcher like all his other appearances
- Jossed: He doesn't.
Albert Wesker himself will somehow be involved in the plot.
If one looks closely enough at the fetus symbol, one can see that the sticks and wings make out a symbol extremely similar to the Umbrella Corporation logo. Alongside that, it bears resemblance to the Biblical interpretations of specific angels, as a ring surrounded by wings. Couple this with theories that the black-haired woman is Natalia/Alex and that Mia was pregnant with a mold-infested baby, and you have a theory that Alex uses to wish the mold-infested newborn to rebirth her brother in some way.And besides, what would the end of Chris' story be without his nemesis to challenge him at the very end?
- Jossed: The Umbrella logo was actually inspired by a symbol found in the area, according to a letter from Ozwell Spencer found near the end of the game. Wesker doesn't reappear, the black-haired woman is Lady Dimitrescu, and it's Ethan's story that comes to an end, not Chris's.
The Merchant will return.
People have already been drawing parallels to Resident Evil 4 and I can't help but notice that the Special Developer Message
revealed a grid-based inventory system similar that, despite the devs saying people who played RE7 or the remakes of 2 & 3 feel right at home, looks more similar to RE4's inventory system, down to the outline of a briefcase. It even has the items use the same amount of space (the handgun uses 8 tiles, the healing item takes up 2, as do ammo packs).
This seems to confirm that Village's inventory system will be similar to RE4's. That same screen also shows a counter for money, implying that you will be able to buy and sell things. Now who could you possibly be doing business with, strangah?
- That would be most WELCOME, STRANGAH!
- From The Stinger of the second trailer, it looks like this game will feature a merchant, but it seems to be a new, mafioso-type guy instead of the jolly old Aussie we know and love.
- Zigzagged. There is a new Merchant equivalent character — however, it's not the Merchant from Resident Evil 4, but a new character entirely; a portly aristocrat known only as "The Duke".
- Even further: judging by a line in the demo, the Duke and the Merchant are actually friends.
Mia & Ethan have a mutant baby.
It looks like Mia is somewhat pregnant in the trailer where Chris shoots her, perhaps his reason for doing so is because Mia is infected & is spreading the virus with Ethan & hers baby? Or perhaps their unborn child is the next big bad?- Confirmed: It's the reason she's the Living MacGuffin for the game; Rose is described as a perfected E-series due to being naturally conceived by Mia and Ethan, who both have Mold in their bodies.
Revelations
RE VIII -> REV III -> Resident Evil Revelations 3 confirmed! How the story of the girl running into the woods might figure into the plot.
- The events of the story actually happened, and the town has a kind of religion based on it.
- Whoever is behind the viral outbreak will have based it on the story.
- Perhaps Lady Dimitrescu is the little girl, and whatever happened to her after getting lost ultimately led to her becoming who she is by the events of the game.
- It's actually all Foreshadowing of the Four Lords, and the Little Girl is Eveline, the previous Big Bad of 7 and Mother Miranda's daughter.
The virus of the game is an experiment left behind by Umbrella...
Locals found the experiments and then built a cult around it.- Jossed: It's the Mold. In fact, Umbrella was built around some of the things that Ozwell Spencer learned about while studying under Mother Miranda.
Lady Dimitrescu will be the Jack Baker or Mr. X of Village.
She’ll chase after the player at a certain point (and players will joke about letting her catch them the first time). She will also mutate into a more monstrous and less attractive form to make the experience more terrifying.- Zigzagged. Whilst Lady Dimitrescu chasing the player hasn't been confirmed yet, gameplay demons have revealed that at least one of her daughters will be pursuing Ethan around the castle at one port.
- Confirmed: She does in fact pursue Ethan around the Castle, though she doesn't mutate until her boss battle.
Lady Dimitrescu's little brother.
In the trailer, she mentions she has a little brother "You escaped my little brother's idiot games, did you?". Who is he ? Multiple possibilities :- She mentions in her phone call "that fool Heisenberg".
- The trailer also shows a bearded man wearing sunglasses.
- Who has playing "games" with Ethan and the latter has escaped them ? Lucas Baker. While this is extremely unlikely (as this will change a lot about Lucas's backstory), this can also be a possibility.
- Given Lady Dimitrescu's seeming age and the fact that the game takes place in Eastern Europe, this one seems unlikely.
- Perhaps Derek Clifford Simmons who had talked about being part of "The Family," and considering how much of a family unit this group of villains is... If Leon is in this game, Dimitrescu might have it quite personal with him.
- It's Heisenberg. Mother Miranda considers the Four Lords to be her children, and Lady Dimitrescu is implied to be the oldest of them all, meaning that he is technically her "little brother." Neither of them is particularly happy about this, though.
The reason Ethan was picked for this mission...
Is that he is still infected with the Mold, and is the only one left with an actual regenerative Healing Factor that Chris can send to a mission that, no doubt, would be a one-way death sentence for any normal human to handle.Of course, Ethan can still "die", but it will take a whole lot more to do so than what any ordinary human would be able to handle in his place.- The mold could also make Ethan immune to whatever virus or experiment that created the monsters in this installment.
- It could also be used as a tracking method. Say Ethan is sent in by Blue Umbrella as a covert agent. He could be tracked by backup agents as his distinct trail of Mold could lead them to whatever is behind the conflict of the game.
- It may give him a psychic link with Mia, as they are the only ones in that town that were exposed to the Mold. It may be a way him and Mia communicate if they are separated.
- A more morbid thought, the link could let Ethan talk to Mia from beyond the grave like he did with Jack Baker in Resident Evil 7, leading to a tearful goodbye between the two after Mia dies.
Chris is a werewolf
A recently released piece of artwork shows Chris
◊ as half wolf. So he might also be working for the villains in this game, though likely not voluntarily. This may even explain why Chris has bulked up again. Hell, the werewolf seen in the announcement trailer
◊ might even be Chris.- Jossed. He's very much human.
All Antagonists will be based on Universal Movie Monsters
- Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters are based on vampires.
- The werewolf-mooks are based on werewolves.
- Giant-like enemies like those in Resident Evil 4 will be based on Frankenstein (1931).
- Flying Enemies will be based on Gargoyles.
- Water enemies will be based on Creature from the Black Lagoon.
- Giant spiders like in....you get the idea.
- Mostly Confirmed: There are no giant spiders and only one water-based enemy, but the developers have confirmed that classic horror movies were a strong influence on the design of the creatures in the game. We do meet vampires, werewolves, gargoyles, ghouls, and even some Frankenstein's monsters (though the latter are more Diesel Punk inspired, and one of them is a flat out Expy for one of the zombots from Frankenstein's Army.)
Maiden's identity
Based on the demo, one would think the Maiden was just another victim of Dimitrescu and her daughters. However, it's entirely possible that Dimitrescu was testing the Maiden to see if she'd be able to escape the Castle. Looking at the list of candidates and rejects, their status might be based on how successful they're in escaping. Add on to the fact that Maiden gets bitten by one of the daughters, and that the demo takes place at a different time to the main game, it's possible that Maiden is in fact one of the other two vampiric daughters we see in the main game. After being impaled by Dimitrescu, because she was bitten, she regenerated as another daughter. Indeed, it could be that only certain girls transform after "death" whereas the others are simply bled by the women and tossed aside.- Jossed: The daughters' origins are revealed later to be the results of experiments with botflies by Lady Dimitrescu.
- The Maiden is most likely named Ingrid, based on the Ingrid's Necklace item that Ethan can find on an enemy in the castle dungeons.
Lady Dimitrescu is a Tyrant
Albeit one that is far more like a human than other Tyrants. She's as tall as them and has the ability to sprout huge claws not unlike the ones the Tyrant fought in the first game had.- Jossed: She's been mutated by the Cadou parasite that Mother Miranda gave her. She predates the creation of the Tyrants by at least forty years, and is in fact older than Umbrella itself.
Chris shot an imposter in the first trailer
Something kidnaps Mia and takes her place in Ethan's life. Chris shoots it to save him.- Confirmed: Specifically, it was Mother Miranda disguised as Mia.
The events of the Maiden demo were orchestrated by Lady Dimitrescu
It's pretty convenient that items like a bolt cutter and a lockpick were left in the dungeon and were still where the note pointed to, and Dimitrescu and her daughter don't seem surprised that the prisoner managed to escape. It was either a test to see how capable the prisoner was, or arranging a show before dinner. Mia is alive
Although it seems that Chris killed her, Mia has survived much worse before. Indeed, she may still have regenerative abilities left over from her infection. Ethan will assume Mia is dead at first, obviously, only for her to turn up alive at some point during his journey to find Rose. Furthermore, she might even end up being another playable character again.- Confirmed! She was never dead to begin with, in fact. Mother Miranda used her shapeshifting abilities to assume Mia's form in an attempt to quietly abduct Rose. Chris finds Mia in Miranda's lab and escorts her to safety.
HUNK will return
In another 4th Survivor mode that pushes his Badass Normal capabilities to their absolute limits. HUNK will return... as an Umbrella Blue operative
He either joined up with Umbrella Blue right when it was formed, or was sitting in a jail cell when Umbrella approached him. Blue Umbrella will be composed of multiple past heroes and mercenaries
People such as Billy Cohen, Jake Muller, Sheva Alomar, Josh Stone, Sherry Birkin, and Parker Luciani join because they are heroes and want to fight the good fight, where as people like HUNK, Wolfpack, and Night Hawk join either for immunity for past crimes, a fat paycheck, or because they have no other skills.- Jossed: Blue Umbrella does not appear, and instead Chris is leading a freelance special forces unit called Hound Wolf, having apparently split off from the BSAA.
Dimitrescu's forms will become progressively uglier as the game goes on
It's no secret she's become a fan favorite, but considering this is a Resident Evil game, whatever monstrous Umbrella cocktail she's taken or been given will warp her into a horrific monster that makes even Nemesis look beautiful by comparison.- Semi-confirmed. She just goes right into one giant Draconic Abomination for her boss fight.
Her intelligence might start off getting sharper to the point she knows exactly which buttons you're pressing that moment. After finally defeating her One-Winged Angel form, her intelligence starts dropping with each form to the point all she can do is violently scream between I'll Kill You! and Please, Don't Leave Me, all Ethan can do is either find the nearest self destruct switch or clear the hell out of town cause they're about to glass the entire city while running away from her.
- Jossed: As mentioned above, she goes straight into One-Winged Angel mode for her boss fight, and her intelligence stays the same. That said, she's gone berserk because Ethan's been an inconsiderate houseguest and killed all of her daughters/broken a bunch of stuff/stolen all her valuables, so she spends most of the fight ranting and raving about how she's going to eat him alive. Also, she's actually the first boss you fight, and the destruction is limited to one area of Castle Dimitrescu. The village does get blown up after the final boss fight, though.
There will be a time skip.
One of the trailers fades out the VIII/VILL part of the title first, leaving AGE on the screen for a brief moment. Something in this game has something to do with age. Possibly there will be a timeskip allowing Rose to not be a baby, maybe long enough for her to be playable, maybe only long enough for her to be an escortable child.- Zigzagged. A time skip does occur and Rose is more grown up in it but it's at the end of the game and it isn't playable. Now played straight as of the announcement of the Shadow of Rose DLC, wherein we'll be playing as Rose post-time skip.
The Four Families are The Connections referenced from Resident Evil 7.
The Connections had ties with the H.C.F. in developing Eveline and monitored the Baker Household for years and given Village seems to be continuing the story from RE 7, they might make their full appearance here. After losing Eveline they want to collect the next best thing and so they target the Winters in an attempt to make the next Eveline in Rosemary. It also helps explain the Families all knowing who Ethan Winters is, especially given Mia had worked with them. Also, the Families all work together in maintaining control over the region and knowing royal families are probably all related to each other in some way. Which makes the name Connections make more sense.- Jossed: The Connections is a separate organization that somehow came into contact with Mother Miranda and promised to try and resurrect her daughter with the Mold in exchange for samples to develop as a BOW. Eveline was the result of this experiment, and Miranda regarded her as a failure and cut contact.
Mother Miranda is either going to be a previous known character, or an entity inhabiting the body of one
Given Chris Redfield's involvement and.... crazy behavior, it seems to be set up that he has a personal stake in this, and the devs seem to have gone to an awful lot of trouble to not give any real information about Mother Miranda, her promotional photo is an entirely robed and hooded figure with absolutely no distinguishing characteristics, and in the trailer/demo they didn't even have her voice, instead showing only Dimitrescu's side of a phone conversation. They're obviously setting up some kind of major Reveal for the character, and it feels to me like it's going to be Claire Redfield, some kind of entity controlling Claire's body, or it's going to be Mia Winters all along. Chris's summary execution certainly seems to point to Mia being directly involved.- Another possibility could be Alex Wesker in Natalia's body.
- Jossed: She's an original character who serves as the Big Bad for the game and is thoroughly dead by the time the game is over. That said, she apparently set Ozwell Spencer on the path to creating Umbrella in the first place.
Mother Miranda is Mia's mother.
Given how the residents of Castle Dimitrescu don't seem to have aged whatsoever despite having been around since at least the 1950s, it's not impossible that Mia Winters is the daughter of Mother Miranda, and the tale about the little girl running away from her mother into the forest was actually about Mia running away from her own mother.- Jossed: She's Eva's mother.
Post-Launch WMG's (open spoilers)
The B.O.Ws used in the end are some form of Tyrant
The BOW soldiers used by BSAA have grey skin and bald heads, just like Mr. Xs. And considering that Mr. Xs are the most popular bioweapons on the market (to the point of being used by governments), they are the easiest to acquire and use.- It's certainly possible that it was some kind of Tyrant. While it's unlikely to be a T-103 model like Mr X (I imagine that after 25 years that they would be obsolete anyway), it certainly does resemble one. Perhaps the bioweapon is a newer model of Tyrant, one that is man-sized and better suited toward blending into a crowd, since Chris didn't realise that the BSAA soldiers were bioweapons until his squad brought one of their corpses with them and removed its helmet. Alternatively, perhaps it is some kind of BSAA knockoff of the Umbrella-era Tyrants, based on their illegal research.
Donna is alive
It's odd how she dies after only getting stabbed a few times in the head. Other Mold mutants like Jack and Ethan can survive far worse punishments than that. It's possible that she realizes she can't defeat Ethan on her own and creates an illusion of him killing her to escape. Or maybe it's because she realizes Mother Miranda's real plan and fakes her own death to save herself.- It's certainly possible, but there is another potential explanation: Donna is revealed to have split up her Cadou parasite among her dolls so that she could control them telekinetically. This may have weakened her regenerative abilities to the point where she couldn't recover from what would have been a minor inconvenience to someone like Jack or Marguerite. This would also tie in with the fact that she doesn't fight Ethan directly, but uses hallucinations and her dolls in the boss fight. She may be aware that she can't soak as much damage as her siblings, so tries to keep away from Ethan, as represented by the "game" of hide-and-seek she forces him to play.
The miniature crystallized forms of the House Leaders (and Angie for Donna) contain their souls
Effectively, they are all examples of Soul Jar, Sealed Evil in a Can, and Not Quite Dead, meaning we may not have seen the last of them, assuming the explosion that took out the village didn’t destroy them as well.- It’s also possible that Miranda herself may have a mini crystal form of her own to ensure that a tiny fragment of her would remain in the event of her “untimely” demise.
A future DLC will have Chris going to BSAA Europe
Not only will it be that someone didn't learn from Umbrella's mistakes with BOWs, but that the episode starts with Chris being Late to the Tragedy. During that time, he'll get his own Mr. X chase and learn the hard way just what Leon and Claire had to deal with back in Raccoon City. Not only that, he'll have the stoicness of Mr. X but the upgraded ruthlessness of Nemesis. Just another day at the office.- Furthermore, just like other games and an unfortunate one, Chris' new team will be annihilated just like what happened in RE6 and Chris will be Forced to Watch like some form of Déjà vu.
The next installment would be Cosmic Horror Story-themed
It's a fitting evolution considering darker Hillbilly Horrors-themed Resident Evil 7 and the Gothic Horror tone of the game contrast the action/horror B-Movie themes of the Resident Evil franchise. It would involve grotesque monster designs similar to the works of Junji Ito as well an oppressive tone par with the works of H. P. Lovecraft.- Building on the Lovecraft possibility and considering how this game ended, it's possible the next game will feature a BOW protagonist, with access to all sorts of crazy powers. Perhaps even multiple endings based on whether you embrace or reject your inhumanity.
- And to top it all off, it’ll provide suggestions as to the true nature and origin of BOWs and BOW-creating organisms (i.e. T-virus, Plaga, Mold) with horrifying implications if true.
The deal with the Duke
So, the Duke — he's a giant, possibly matching Dimitrescu in size. He's immune to bullets and explosions. Most importantly, he has free rein to travel through the village, knows where the Lords lay their heads, and is never attacked by Mother Miranda or her servants, despite all of the weapons and assistance he offers Ethan. The most obvious answer is that he's one of Miranda's experiments, just like the Four Houses. He has a title, like the other lords. He has a crest of his own — an owl, serving as a rug in his wagon. He knows of and understands Mother Miranda's experiments, as well as Ethan's... unique condition.- A bigger question is why the Four Lords and Mother Miranda let the Duke do as he pleases instead of killing him or forcing him to help. Aside from his invulnerability, the Duke doesn't appear to have any useful mutations. He also doesn't appear to have a base of operations, either living out of his wagon or hanging around Dimtrescu's castle. But I think the Duke makes himself useful to the others by procuring things they need or want — he has a talent for business, and he has access to all sorts of toys to sell to Ethan. Someone has to act as the village's face when dealing with the outside world when there's something they can't get and must have, and the others are either too obviously freakish, or too arrogant and aggressive to be trusted. Not to mention that no one in Miranda's "family" seems to like each other, and wouldn't trust anyone else, but the Duke doesn't have an army or a castle to threaten their power. By keeping his head down, the Duke removes a target from his back and makes himself a more attractive partner or servant to the others.
Oswell Spencer is Back from the Dead
Now that it's been revealed that Mother Miranda is the one responsible for every tragedy behind the series, there's a good chance that when Wesker impaled him near the end of 5, he just played possum and continued to hide away from Wesker and the BSAA for years, regardless who won. Now that Mother Miranda is dead, he'll finally come out of hiding to take his place as the true Big Bad once and for all and every protagonist from Chris, Jill, Rebecca, Barry, Leon, Claire, Sherry, Ada, Helena, Jake, Mia, even Rosemary will fight against him with Ethan and Eveline joining in from beyond the grave to make sure this time he fucking stays dead! The man who Rose and her handler are driving towards in the ending is Leon
He requested Rose's help with containing some sort of new biological threat, and requested they pick him up so he could talk to her in person.- People have broken the camera in that final scene and it's actually Ethan's character model right there, implying that his spirit/memory is there right next to Rose.
A future DLC will involve Joe Baker exploring the site of the destroyed village.
Whether he's being deployed as a Blue Umbrella operative to secure the area or simply taking an unexpected detour from a holiday trip around Europe, Joe will once again have to rely on his fists and survival instincts in order to take on whatever horrors are lurking in the village's blasted remains following the Megamycete's destruction.- If Joe is going in at Blue Umbrella's behest, Zoey could also make an appearance as the DLC's Mission Control.
- One of the enemies fought could be the BSAA's Tyrant soldiers. These will either be a fresh batch sent in to cover up the incident, and/or the remains of the first squads sent in prior to the Megamycete's destruction, resurrected by the remnant mold still present at the site.
- The latter could be seen sporting some new, extremely horrific mutations due to the interaction between the Mold and whatever virus was used to engineer the BSAA Tyrant batch (most likely the T-Virus).
- And if by some way the Four Lords come back because of the Crystal Remains, he'll get into a dustup with each one of them, saving Lady Dimitrescu for last, this time ending the house's legacy once and for all.
The Duke and the Merchant are part of a Benevolent Conspiracy serving as the Good Counterpart to the series' oldest villains.
If Mother Miranda's group has existed for so long, what about them? Why else have they done nothing but offer their assistance to people that happen to be the good guys? The creature in House Beneviento's basement is what used to be its gardener.
Mutated by the Mold and its appearance differing from person to person due to the flowers that he planted in the cemetery before receiving his "reward" from the Lord, in the form of "permanent employment" for his services. Note that the creature is as big as an adult man would be, with limbs to match. The Urias Drac that guards Claudia Beneviento's grave is the former gardener.
It would explain why he was randomly watching over the grave and would so aggressively protect it. Las Plagas is a mutational offspring of the Megamycete
It fits the idea, the mold enhanced Mother Miranda when she came into contact with it, but others that she tried to enhance either adapted to it extremely well (Dimitrescu, Heisenberg), average (Donna), or very poorly (Moreau). Even when she modified the parasite it mostly caused the villagers to become Lycanoid. Las Plagas however lets people be controlled, but retain their intelligence, making it much easier for Las Plagas to populate. Whoever made the structures in 8 left to warmer climates after whatever they did succeeded and failed, only to die out in the new location, leaving the mold there to not thrive, but mutate enough to become proficient when resurrected. Future story DLC will be Chris Redfield Vs The BSAA
One of the revelations in 7 is that the BSAA, once dedicated to finding and destroying bioweapons and bringing those who sell or use them to justice, have now started using bioweapons themselves, as well as committing amoral acts they cover up. Because of them wanting to fully control Rose and use her like a weapon, Chris will get fed up and turn against them out of disgust with how far they fallen and him keeping his promise to Ethan about keeping Rose safe. In the next game, Rose will try to resurrect Ethan
It’s been stated that the Mold can preserve people’s consciousness, which is part of what kept Ethan kicking for so long after he was killed. And since Rose is connected to Eveline and therefore to the Mold, it’s completely possible that she might attempt to bring her father back to life. This will most likely go south rather quickly, which could even be the main conflict of the game. The Fairy Tale is also foreshadowing abilities Rose has gained from the events of the game.
Within the Village of Shadows story, the young girl receives gifts from each of the four monster lords, only for the lords and the witch to punish her in response. In reality, these events occurred the other way around, with Miranda and the Four Lords butchering Rose first. When threatening her handler, Rose brings up that she can do stuff that even Chris doesn't know about. Therefore, it may be that in addition to the baseline megamycete-based abilities she has as the 'reincarnation' of Eveline, she's also able to harness the special abilities produced by the Four Lords, as now she's taken abilities from them as 'payment' for what they did to her. These may include but are not limited to:- Lady Dimitrescu's claws and regeneration.
- Lady Beneviento's illusions.
- Lord Moreau's acid generation or ability to breathe underwater.
- Lord Heisenberg's electromagnetic manipulation.
Chris at the beginning
There may be a good reason why, in the opening, Chris didn't tell Ethan the Mia he shot was Miranda: he wasn't sure he'd actually taken her out, and thought that she'd immediately become more dangerous if she knew he knew she wasn't actually Mia. Pretending he'd killed Ethan's wife hurt Ethan, for sure, but it could have also left Miranda confused enough to assume Chris was actually trying to kill Mia Winters, leaving her to hold that form until she figured out what to do next by ambushing the truck. If Chris said even as much as "that's not Mia", Miranda would be certain she'd been figured out and could have felt cornered and taken more immediately reactive and destructive actions to save herself. After the truck incident, however, Chris has no excuse for his vagueness. The Duke is a supernatural being, either a higher power or an agent of one.
The Duke by all accounts seems to possess a lot of strange abilities and his interactions with other characters don't make sense if you consider him just another bioweapon or mutant. None of the villains attempt to harm him or impede him in any capacity, even when he is clearly working against them or flouting the laws Mother Miranda set down (such as providing the owner of the Slaughterhouse with newspapers from the outside world), Lady Dimitrescu will even actively refuse to even approach a room with him inside, even to kill the man who killed her daughters, however they obviously know of him since he has business dealings with Alcina. He possesses extensive knowledge of not only Miranda, the lords and the village, but also of Ethan, Rose and his family, in spite of having no obvious way of knowing these things, can travel at incredible speeds into places he physically should not be able to reach, appears entirely immune to harm if you attempt to attack him and is the only character to actually laugh at Ethan when threatened by him. His abilities and knowledge could be explained if he were some kind of benevolent supernatural being, like a Guardian Angel or a God from Classical Mythology, who was either sent or chose to assist Ethan in saving Rose, and set the stage so he could topple Miranda and the Fungal Root. This could equally apply to the Merchant who seems affiliated with The Duke, and would explain his abilities as well, you could also combine this with the theory that the Crystallized remains of the Lords containing their souls by implying that the Duke purchases them in order to transport their souls to the afterlife.- It's perfectly acceptable if forgettable as the rebooted franchise is going more supernatural, cosmic horror themed. Perhaps all the biology-magic is a case of Not Evil, Just Misunderstood and Wesker being the embodiment of a Royal Brat.
The Village of Shadows story is based on an actual event
- We lived in a world where there exists zombies, giant animals, mutants, super humans etc. Given that Miranda is an immortal witch, it's pretty likely that there maybe one or two immortals out there. So, basically the story is an account of an actual event when Miranda kidnapped a little girl to help bring back her daughter. This little girl was no ordinary girl, she was descended from an immortal who is far more powerful than Miranda, hence the kidnapping. However, the girl's parents intervene on time and the father and Miranda battled each other to the death....or at least it was supposed to be. Miranda survived to fight another day while the father continued his peaceful life with his family until the game restarted the battle with Miranda fighting the immortal father again, though the latter is in a form so that she can't recognize him and who is the father? Duke.
The BSAA orchestrated the events of the entire game.
Based on the text from the Baker Family Incident Report, the BSAA knew that The Connections were based in Eastern Europe, so if the BSAA wanted to protect the Winters family from them, why would they relocate them to Eastern Europe, where the Connections are the strongest? If you take into account the apparent corruption among the BSAA (such as using BOWs themselves and covering up Eveline's existence) and them having apparently been keeping surveillance on Miranda (shown by them immediately assaulting the village when Miranda begins the Ceremony), then it can be surmised that the BSAA deliberately relocated the Winters family to Eastern Europe to serve as bait to lure Miranda out into the open so they could seize the Megamycete. And their plan would have worked if they weren't thwarted by Ethan and Chris' intervention. Ethan's not dead
I have no real reasons. I just want mold boy to live.- Rose may have ghostwritten this.
Miranda instigated and encouraged Dimitrescu and Heisenberg's rivalry
It's more than just a Werewolf and Vampire thing. Miranda, ever the observant scientist, understood that these two both had the strength of mind and might to oppose her (as opposed to the other two Lords). Keeping them at each others' throats prevented them from forming a rebellion - especially one aided by a formidable cyber-zombie and lycan army and three insect hoard vampire ladies whose loyalty is first and foremost to their mother. There will be some prequel or interquel DLC, similar to RE7's Banned Footage
Not only could it be interesting to see how other characters would fare worse against the Lords outside of a teaser for Ethan's gameplay, opinions of the game largely indicate that more time with them, particularly Dimitrescu and Beneviento, would be very well-received. It could also be a way to see more content relating to the quickly-killed villagers, perhaps giving Luiza's husband a grander backstory for his death in multiple chapters like Clancy's did in 7. Ethan's unique mold infection makes him hollow on the inside
This is why Heisenberg, and later Donna, failed to take away his weapons/equipment — they weren't in a suitcase. They were *inside him*. He's just not consciously aware of it. This is also potentially the in-game reason that certain interactions (picking up objects, turning keys in doors, rotating objects when inspecting them) don't use Ethan's hands. The Village of Shadows storybook is a prophecy — but a misinterpreted one.
Miranda-as-Mia read it out to Rose because she sincerely believed that it was about her and Eva - with the Monsters and Witch standing in for her various hardships and/or Spanish Flu. She had no idea that she would one day make the story come true, or that she was the Witch, Ethan the Father, and Mia the Mother. Rose will face several of Ethan's old enemies
If you sell the “Crystal Heisenberg” to the Duke he will mention that he can still feel Heisenberg's “essence”. Also, at the end of Not a hero in the last game, Lucas’s corpse never calcifies. Perhaps one or both of them will be Not Quite Dead and form a Big Bad Ensemble or at least be secondary antagonists. Ethan didn't exactly save 'Rose'.
Miranda, though her power's been weakened by the time of the final battle, still seems to complete the ritual to put Eva's consciousness in Rose's body. Given Rose was just a baby, how would anyone really determine if her original 'self' had been overwritten by Eva's? It seems plausible that it was, and that the teenage girl seen at the end believes herself to be Rosemary Winters, is in her body, and was raised as her, but is technically, actually, Eva. It could even be why she reacts so violently to being called Eveline — she has some serious cognitive dissonance going on. Eva chose not to come back
Assuming she was absorbed by the mold, she likely would have found out through the other people absorbed that her mother was committing various atrocities to bring her back. When Miranda did the ritual to bring her back, she instead refused and reformed Rose. Claudia Beneviento was Donna's daughter, and losing her is what actually pushed her over the edge into her obsession with dolls.
The grave of a "Claudia" Beneviento can be interacted with, but this girl isn't mentioned anywhere else. However, the Beneviento house is up to its eyeballs in pregnancy and reproductive symbolism, from the giant mutated baby to the framed drawing of the pregnant woman that tries to jumpscare you at one point. It could be that Claudia was Donna's child who, much like Eva, died young, but whereas Miranda aggressively tried to get her child back, Donna responded by retreating away into a fantasy world of little girl dolls. Angie especially may serve as some substitute for Claudia. The DLC will actually deal with Albert Wesker visiting the Village before the events of the game took place.
Wesker, hunting down leads on Spencer before he manages to track him down during the events of Resident Evil 5, discovers Spencer's history with Miranda and arrives in the Village to find out what she knows, and runs afoul of the villagers, lycans, and other B.O.W.'s present.What follows is a series of shorter fights/encounters with each of the four lords that leave them defeated but alive, as Wesker doesn't care enough to try and finish them off. By the end, Miranda, impressed with Wesker's accomplishments, directs him to where Spencer is hiding, helping strengthen the ties between this game and the series as a whole.
- This seems unlikely or at least wouldn't involve the whole village; remember that early on, the villagers are all praying to Mother Miranda, meaning they see her as a guardian and protector. The village only went to hell once Miranda had Rose and could finally try to bring Eva back.
Miranda influenced Ethan and Mia to move to Europe
Why else would they "just happen" to end up living next to the village? Miranda needs Rose for her plans and she can imitate Mia.- Seems to be jossed, as Mia angrily exclaims to Chris that he (presumbly the BSAA or Blue Umbrella) had them relocated there. Although given the implication that Chris has been on Miranda's trail since the events in Dulvey, it's possible he put them there on purpose, to lure Miranda out.
There will be a DLC where you play as The Duke
The Duke was Mother Miranda's Dragon before he rebelled
Which is why he can travel as he pleases, selling weapons to the Lords' enemy Ethan Winters, and the Lords never raise a hand to him.More specifically, the Duke was serving Miranda until he rebelled by recovering Ethan's body and helping him kill his superior. Miranda's plan involved sacrificing her adopted children to the Megamycete, and Ethan was her instrument. The Duke provided Ethan with weapons and information, until the very end when Miranda killed Ethan and the Duke recovered his body, keeping Ethan safe and guiding him to the final fight, betraying Miranda and cementing his allegiance to Ethan.
The Family are connected with the ruins.
In Resident Evil 6, Ada says "We're up against the ones who really run this country", referring to the Family with one of their members is Derek Simmons, the US National Security Advisor. It's also known that the Family was founded in, at the latest, The American Revolution. The ruins in the village? Been around way longer than Miranda, and potentially was a Family base before it was abandoned, as similar ruins were in Tall Oaks. The Epilogue is not as much of a Time Skip as it seems
At first glance, from Rose's age, 17(ish) years have passed. Setting aside that this is possible from Evelyn's rapid aging in the previous game, there's a very Doylist reason she's much older than she looks. The Resident Evil characters that the fans know and love are already starting to get too old for believable action-heavy roles (to-wit, in the main game set in 2021, Chris is 48. Except for Barry (61) most of the rest of the cast are in their mid-late 40's). Shaving off a further decade and a half would mean Capcom has a LOT of confidence in Rose carrying the series going forward.- OP here and with the DLC trailer specifying 16 years have passed, this seems JOSSED
The Duke is Miranda's husband.
He will be her only link to her daughter that she has left, he is Eva's father. He was originally in charge of the four houses The Duke is (at least) one of the Four Founders
This is industrial-grade tinfoil hat territory, but bear with me. Little is said about them, but Miranda's Four Houses are apparently based on a medieval local story/history of "Four Founders"—Cesare, Father Nicola, Berengario, and Guglielmo, according to the artifacts you can find—that built the Giant's Chalice and the ruins to control the megamycite. The biggest potential connection between them and the Duke is, admittedly tentative, but according to the descriptions of those treasures, Father Nicola treasured an angel statute, the other three treasured cups and a plate, meaning that on some level they probably *really* enjoyed mealtime. Sound like anyone else we know?- Additionally, if the Duke is one of the Founders (or even a gestalt of their minds joined together through the megamycite) that would explain why even he doesn't know what he is. We know that Miranda gained her connection to the mold by simply touching it, and that four men from the Dark Ages spent enough time near that same mold that they devised a way to suppress it. It follows that the Founders would've probably been changed by the megamycite, and hailing from an era where cutting-edge medicine was bloodletting, they probably wouldn't have any idea what had happened to them.
Resident Evil 9's enemies will be alien themed.
Ethan's games put him up against threats based on horror genres RE usually doesn't feature. 7 was Slasher Movies and Hillbilly Horrors, 8 was Gothic Horror, so 9 will continue that trend by featuring Bioweapons that resemble Starfish Aliens or The Greys. The woman and her child reading a story about the moon at the end of 8 was foreshadowing. Resident Evil IX and the return of Wesker
A grown up Rose will be teaming up with Chris, Jill and the rest of the BSAA to take down a back from the dead, due to the mold, Albert Wesker.- Alternatively: Ethan IS an amnesiac Wesker who DID survive *gestures* all of that, and that is why we never see his face.
The Duke is Ethan's Hallucination, his Heroic Willpower and a desire for a happy life personfified.
As the Duke is not shown to be interacting directly with anybody else throughout the entire story save for Ethan, its entirely plausible that the jolly merchant is a hallucination that only Ethan himself could see.
The concussion of the car crash that opened the story, followed by stumbling straight into a Bram Stoker meets The Brothers Grimm Fractured Fairy Tale of a Gothic Village, then having to outrun two tsunamis of slavering werewolves in a row crossed with deathraps from Saw traumatized Ethan with so much fright that he subconciously created a "coping mechanism" in the form of an Imaginary Friend, modelled on the Fractured Fairy Tale archetypes his daughter so loves.
All the hunting, resource gathering, weapon modification and dragging his own heartless body to fight Miranda one last time? It was all Ethan's own Heroic Willpower.
Ethan Winters is still an Average Joe, and not a hardened warrior like Chris or Leon. Hence he needed a subconcious justification that an Average Joe like him only succeeded because he had a warm and chubby helping hand from a jolly Santa-Claus-like personification of the joy and domestic comfort that he desired for his family. His traumatized mind made him believe he was given shiny state-of-the-art weapons and nourishing cousines that allowed him to prevail, when in harsh reality he was scavenging rusty century old Winchester-shotguns and eating raw uncooked snakes.
Notice the second his raional conciousness tried to ask The Duke "what are you", the subconcious that created this imaginary friend could not give a straight answer, and the second this out-of-genre jolly coping mechanism outlived his use, he evaporated like ephemeral foam as The Little Mermaid did.
Even the letter he finds with the post script of Lady Dimistrucu supposedly doing business with The Duke? Added by his subconciousness to justify why she did not chase him into the "safe" room when in fact it was simply beneath her dignity to crouch through such a tiny door.
If anything, the fact that Ethan still managed to defeat an ancient eldritch goddess with less guns than John MacLane, less tools than Angus MacGuyver while starving on scraps of disgusting un-food that would make a Billygoat puke, with the mere "help" of an imaginary friend, only makes his quest to save his daughter all the more heroic.
