Resident Evil Requiem had its first official showing at Summer Game Fest. The new trailer and accompanying promotional images didn’t give us too much information about what to expect, but did provide a ton of teasers about what’s coming when Requiem launches next year. However, one small detail might’ve blown past many viewers’ eyes without notice. That detail officially debunks a long-held fan theory, putting to rest an argument that has frustratingly been made on forums since the first game launched.
In the first onslaught of Resident Evil Requiem promotional material, the team at Capcom shared an image showing a zoomed-out, overhead view of Raccoon City. Veteran fans will remember that the entire city was bombed after Resident Evil 3; however, many fans have long assumed that the missile used was nuclear. If that were the case, going back to Raccoon City would be nearly impossible due to nuclear fallout. Thankfully, that bomb was not a nuke. At least not a nuke like we understand them.
This has been known for years. Official sources have confirmed that the bomb used to take out Raccoon City was a thermobaric missile, not a traditional nuclear weapon. That has not stopped fans from hopping online to claim a nuke was used, rendering Raccoon City an unhabitable crater. As you can see in the image above, that is far from the case.
The experimental thermobaric weapon used in Resident Evil 3 does replicate a nuclear weapon’s destructive powers, but Capcom writer Yasuhisa Kawamura specifically confirmed that it does not have the radiation or electromagnetic pulse usually associated with a nuclear weapon.
While people probably aren’t living in Raccoon City anymore, nuclear fallout isn’t a concern for anyone wanting to explore the city’s ruins. That seems to be very important for Resident Evil Requiem. Nearly everything Capcom has shared thus far points toward this game being a return to what made the original games so great.
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Obviously, we know we are, in some capacity, heading back to Raccoon City. We’ve seen images of the bombed-out remains of the Raccoon City Police Department, and there have been hints that we might revisit a version of the Spencer Mansion. Beyond that, the game’s protagonist, Grace Ashcroft, is the daughter of Resident Evil Outbreak‘s Alyssa Ashcroft. We don’t know if Alyssa herself is making a comeback, but evoking that name was definitely done on purpose, giving veteran Resident Evil fans a big jolt of nostalgia.
There have also been rumors about Lisa Trevor making a comeback. That seems unlikely because Trevor was officially killed in Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, though it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if Capcom decided to retcon that tidbit. After all, The Umbrella Chronicles is a 2007 Wii light gun shooter that didn’t exactly light the world on fire.
It’s also worth noting that previews out of SGF claim there will be a second protagonist. Many assume this is Leon S. Kennedy from everything we’ve seen and heard thus far, but Capcom has yet to confirm. Either way, it’s evident that Capcom is taking fans back to the beginning for the first time in years, potentially tying up loose ends and giving characters like Jill Valentine a major comeback in the mainline story.
After all, the end of Resident Evil Village seemed to hint that things were finally coming to a head. Spoilers for a game from 2021, but the late-game reveal that Mother Miranda was Oswell Spencer’s mentor certainly seemed like a neon-lit sign that Capcom was planning to dive deeper into the history of Umbrella. And if they want to do that, they almost have to go back to Raccoon City for Requiem.
Fortunately, it shouldn’t be too much longer before we learn more about what Capcom has planned for Resident Evil Requiem. It’s scheduled to launch on February 27th, 2026, but there will be a demo at Gamescom this August. Capcom will likely release that demo to the public relatively soon after, giving everyone a chance to get a taste of how the game plays. As we move through the pre-release cycle, the developers will almost certainly provide more hints about what’s coming, potentially even giving us our first look at that rumored second protagonist.
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