Resident Evil: Village (and its DLC) aims to complete Ethan Winters’ story arc in the franchise.

Running for over two and a half decades, Resident Evil has had a number of main characters – Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Leon S. Kennedy, Claire Redfield, Rebecca Chambers, to name a few. In Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and its sequel, Resident Evil: Village, Ethan Winters took on the role, and it’s fair to say that he started his adventure as an ordinary man, but his life changed a little overnight when he visited the Baker farm (in search of his lost wife Mia…).

After the events in Louisiana, Ethan eventually fled to Eastern Europe, but ended up in a bit of a mess there too. He ended up sacrificing himself to save his daughter Rose, and Rose finally met him sixteen years later in the Shadows of Rose DLC. As a teenager, Rose still has the power of the Megamycete (it infected Ethan) after Miranda kidnapped her. At the end of the DLC, a mysterious figure walked towards the agent car assigned to Rose.

Obviously, Capcom left the door open for Rose to return in the future, but let’s not forget that the Japanese company announced a year ago that Shadows of Rose would conclude the Winters family story, so neither Ethan nor Rose will appear in Resident Evil 9. Meanwhile, Capcom is making a killing with remakes (Resident Evil 2 Remake was excellent, Resident Evil 3 Remake was good but a little lacking in content, and Resident Evil 4 Remake was fantastic again, and the Separate Ways DLC made it even better!), so leaving the family behind seems like a good decision.

The faceless Ethan didn’t really appeal to players (Capcom themselves didn’t care either, as they reused many of his sound effects in Resident Evil: Village…), and he didn’t become as popular as, say, Chris Redfield. The old characters are still successful, and the appearance of Ethan or Rose would only get a similar positive response much later…

Source: GameRant