Resident Evil: Developer confirms popular character didn’t die after Resident Evil 0
Resident Evil 0 was a strange game, first seeing life as an N64 game back in the late 90s, the game was ultimately cancelled and would finally see the light of day on the Nintendo Gamecube in 2002.
The game is often overlooked and forgotten about, partly due to its zap system, which sees players take control of both characters. It was a great concept but could be very frustrating at times.
However, one aspect of the game has kept fans theorizing for many years, and that is the fate of one of the game’s main characters, Billy Coen.
A recent interview finally sheds light on his fate.
Billy Coen Is Alive?
Billy Coen found himself in hot water after stumbling into a zombie apocalypse after escaping being sentenced to death by a military court for massacring 23 people, a crime he didn’t commit as was revealed during the events of Resident Evil 0.
At the end of the game, the second main character Rebecca Chambers, the same character we first saw in Resident Evil 1, is left with a decision. Does she take Billy Coen into custody? Or let him go as a thank you for saving her life throughout the game.
Rebecca lets Billy go and he disappears into the Arklay Forest, the same forest that we would see be infested with Cerberus’ the following day in the events of Resident Evil 1.
It has long been speculated that Coen was either killed in the Arklay Mountains or decided to lay low in Raccoon City before being killed during the zombie outbreak, however, the second theory doesn’t make sense as to why would a fugitive lay low just miles from where he was last seen?
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The likely scenario is he got himself as far away from Raccoon City, and likely the United States, as he possibly could, perhaps heading to South America.
But, what we do know is that Billy Coen did survive and was alive at least as of 2006, 8 years after the events of Resident Evil 0.
In an interview, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, producer on many Resident Evil games including 0, as well as all 3 animated movies and the recently released Netflix series, Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, revealed that Billy Coen was in fact considered to be a character in the series, but they decided against it due to him not really fitting with the story.
When asked about disappointing cuts that they had to make, Kobayashi revealed that Coen was one of those cuts.
“When working out the Penamstan plot, we did think about including characters other than Leon and Claire, at one point even considering bringing Billy in from Resident Evil 0, but he just didn’t fit the setting. Sorry, Billy fans!”
So there we have it, straight from someone who has been instrumental in the Resident Evil franchise, Billy Coen was still alive as of 2006 when Infinite Darkness takes place.
It is possible we could see him show up in a future series of the show, but it does sound like Capcom decided against it, but if the fan demand was there they could change their mind.
