'Fake News': Resident Evil Requiem developer dismisses controversial fan image of Leon wearing eyepatch

The producers of Resident Evil Requiem have attempted to address ongoing speculation that fan-favorite character Leon S. Kennedy will appear in the game by labeling certain images as “fake news.”

Capcom continues to promote its upcoming Resident Evil Requiem As a new work in the series, starring the new protagonist Grace Ashcroft, although It was never explicitly stated that she was the only playable character.

In fact, when IGN sat down with Capcom at Gamescom 2025 in August, We're told its staff won't discuss any internet rumors about the appearance of certain other characters. But now, in an interview StevievolProducer Masato Kumazawa at least acknowledged the ongoing speculation and confirmed that one particular image was a fan creation.

Recently, Resident Evil fans have been debating the authenticity of a photo shared widely on social media featuring an older Leon wearing an eyepatch. Many people believe that this image may have been generated by artificial intelligence, and now Xiong Ze specifically describes this image as “fake news.”

“Beyond any official information released by Capcom, the rest is more of (fan) detective work,” Kumasawa said. “So I would suggest not taking things at face value. Considering that this is an age where artificial intelligence (can be used to create) videos and photos, we don't know what is right and what is wrong.

“Players are free to believe what they want to believe,” he continued, “What I want to tell you is that we can't give you any confirmation until Capcom officially announces it.”

Looking again, I think this leaked RE9 Leon image is fake. The pupils in his eyes disappeared. The eye patch was blurry and ill-fitting. Hair strands are painted. 🤔 pic.twitter.com/KT43m1NOU2

— Paintixir (VGen) (@Paintixir) September 20, 2025

Another recent source of discussion among Resident Evil fans is Grace Ashcroft's DLC costume tag found in the Deluxe Edition of the game. This pricier set promotes the fact that it contains five additional outfits in total, although only a few of Grace's have been shown off so far. In addition to this, every in-game item is marked with the “Grace's Outfit:” prefix, which fans excitedly suggested means that more outfits for other characters (Leon) will be delayed.

“There was a recent photo of Leon wearing an eyepatch, which basically means that Leon has a DLC or a new costume,” Kumasawa said, “but just to be sure, this is all fake news.”

However, Capcom once again doesn't seem to be saying that Leon isn't in the game – at this point, if he wasn't in the game, you'd think its developers would want to set the record straight in order to start managing expectations.

Resident Evil Requiem will launch on February 27, 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5, Switch 2, and Xbox Series X/S – with or without Leon.

Tom Phillips is IGN's news editor. You can contact Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social