Resident Evil 9finally got announced asResident Evil Requiemin a surprise reveal at Summer Game Fest 2025. It was an incredible trailer, showing just enough details forREfans to go wild over, including a fascinating new lead character. The game iscoming out on May 26, 2025, and while there are many interesting aspects about the trailer, one thing stands out to me as someone familiar with theResident Evilfilm series.
In a shocking turn of events,Resident Evil Requiembrings the franchise back to Raccoon City. This has great storyline potential, with thepossibility of many returning characters, but theResident Evilfilms actually did it first. In fact, this isn’t the first time theResident Evilgames have drawn inspiration from the films, as it has been done numerous times in prior titles.
Raccoon City Is Back In RE9
Back To Where It All Began
Even though Raccoon City got nuked inResident Evil 3, the destroyed remains of the once quiet, peaceful town return inResident Evil Requiem. This is where the franchise started. Sure,RE1took place in the surrounding forests of Raccoon City, but it still occurred in the same general area.RE2and3were directly in the town itself, and this original trilogy of games can be calledthe Raccoon City trilogy.
It’s very cool returning to this iconic location inResident Evil 9, and it makes sense that the area wasn’t completely Thanos snapped by the nuke. The thing is, returning toRaccoon City was done first inResident Evil: The Final Chapter. In what was easily the worstResident Evilfilm,The Final Chapterrevolved around Alice returning to Raccoon City and the Hive to save the world from extinction. While the editing ruined the film, in my opinion, this was a cool premise, returning to the location of the first movie.
RE9seems to be following suit, tying in this newest entry to the oldest ones. This is actually the first time, besidesRE0andRE3, that you’llbe returning to a location in a prior gamesince most of them blow up at the end. I can’t wait to explore the Raccoon Police Station again inRE9, along with the new lead character, who has ties to themost underratedResident Evilgameof all time. However,Requiemis far from the first entry to incorporate movie elements into the games.
This Isn’t The First Time The Resident Evil Games Took From The Movies
Lasers, Queens, And Clones
The firstResident Evilgame to draw heavy inspiration from theREmovies wasThe Umbrella Chronicles, released on Wii and PS3. It’s a bit of a forgottenResident Eviltitle that doesn’t get enough lovethese days, but much of it is canon to theREuniverse.Umbrella Chroniclesintroduced the White and Red Queens, which are a significant part of the films. If you don’t remember, the Red Queen is the character who says, “You’re all going to die down here.”
Not only were the Queens introduced, but the game had to include an homage to the iconic laser sequence from the firstResident Evilfilm in the Umbrella’s End scenario with Jill and Chris.Resident Evil 6became the first mainline installment to take inspiration from the movieswith the introduction of clones. Clones are a huge theme throughout the film series, butRE6stepped its toes in the water with Carla Radames being a clone of Ada Wong.
Out of all these elements that the games took from the films, returning to Raccoon City inResident Evil 9has to be the most interesting. We haven’t seen Raccoon City inREcanon since its destruction, and it’ll be fascinating to go through this destroyed town and the Police Station after all this time. It’s the element I’m most excited about inResident Evil Requiem.
