Resident Evil: Will Billy Coen ever return?

ByDavid Coulson Hours
Resident Evil 0 Billy Coen Rebecca Meet

There have been many characters in the Resident Evil franchise that have only appeared in one game or other media despite still technically being alive, or at least their status unknown. Some of these include the likes of Carlos from Resident Evil 3, as well as Billy Coen from Resident Evil 0.

Resident Evil 0, the prequel to the first entry in the series, saw Rebecca Chambers come across Billy Coen, a member of the military who was sentenced to death for being falsely convicted of murdering 23 civilians before the outbreak began.

Resident Evil 0 Billy Coen
Credit: Capcom

At the end of the game, Rebecca decides to let Billy go and he makes his way through the Arkley Mountains never to be seen again.

There have been a lot of theories and rumors over the year, such as Billy Coen being captured and turned into Nemesis, the main boss of Resident Evil 3. Another one is that he was killed in the outbreak in Raccoon City, although it would make no sense for a fugitive to hide out in a city right next to where he initially escaped so it is very unlikely.

Since he hasn’t been seen in almost 20 years, many fans have assumed that Billy had died at some point between the events of Resident Evil 0 and the destruction of Raccoon City.

However, it appears that Billy Coen is in fact alive and could make a return in the future.

In an interview, Resident Evil 0 producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi spoke about Billy Coen being in consideration to be the main protagonist in the animated Netflix series, Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness.

“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!”

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This does mean that, in the eyes of Capcom, Billy Coen is alive and well, at least as of 2006 which is when Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness took place. Had he canonically been dead in the Resident Evil universe, there wouldn’t have been any consideration for him to make a return.