Fans Are Hoping This Classic Resident Evil Enemy Is Coming Back

Resident Evil Requiem was officially revealed by developer Capcom at the 2025 Summer Game Fest. There, fans learned that the next mainline game will finally take players back to Raccoon City for the first time since Resident Evil 3. This version of the iconic city has seen thirty years of changes following its bombing in RE3, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t expect to see several callbacks to the first three games. After all, this is a franchise that loves to bring characters back.

We don’t have to look any further than the lead character, Grace Ashcroft. She is the daughter of Alyssa Ashcrrfot, who appeared in Resident Evil Outbreak and was directly referenced in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. Early screenshots have also definitely shown that we’ll be going back to the police station from Resident Evil 2, though we don’t know if it’ll be fully explorable or just pop up in a cutscene. And those two revelations are just the tip of the iceberg.

As you’d expect given Resident Evil’s popularity, fans on the internet are brimming with theories about what might be happening in Resident Evil Requiem. While some of that fantasy booking is downright wild, there are a few intriguing tidbits that seem possible. One of the most exciting theories making the rounds has to do with an iconic enemy from the original Resident Evil remake that released on GameCube. Capcom created a brand-new enemy for that game, which we haven’t seen much of since.

The Crimson Head in Resident Evil is one of the more ingenious additions to the remake. These fast-moving, high-powered versions of zombies only appear if you kill a normal zombie and don’t burn it. They work so well because the game is a remake. Players who already knew the Spencer Mansion like the back of their hand would amass an armory of bullets, making the survival horror combat relatively easy. Crimson Heads flipped that on its head, giving veteran players a new challenge and incentivizing players to stay out of combat as often as possible.

Despite that, we’ve never seen them in another mainline Resident Evil game. These are popular enemies that up the challenge, which is something you’d think Capcom would love to add for higher difficulties, but it never has. Fortunately, Requiem might be the chance for us to finally see them again.

Now, it’s important to note that there isn’t anything concrete about Crimson Heads making a return. Capcom hasn’t said anything officially, and the early teasers don’t have any hints we can stretch to fit the fan-favorite monster. However, we know that Capcom was working on several new monsters for Resident Evil 2 Remake that had to be cut due to time.

The most famous of these baddies are the Condemned. These were said to be enemies that would haunt Sherry Birkin during the Orphanage section, but ultimately, the team decided to use Brian Irons as the villain to great effect. We know less about another cut villain, but the concept art appears to be a young Licker, just starting to shed its human skin.

Unlike Lickers, Crimson Heads are created by the V-ACT Effect from a totally different t-Virus strain, so you wouldn’t see a Crimson Head evolve into a Licker like they’re Pokémon (Capcom could always retcon this). That said, it’s clear that Capcom has been experimenting with new types of classic monsters as early as Resident Evil 2 Remake.

If we’re going back to Raccoon City to see what’s happened after 30 years, Capcom will almost assuredly want to walk the line between new and nostalgia. Seeing Crimson Heads back in the game for the first time in more than 20 years would be the perfect way to pull that off with the developer’s enemy design. On one hand, you’d have veteran players hooting and hollering because they know what’s happening. On the other hand, you’d have new players getting that same sense of terrifying thrill that old heads got back in 2002.

Of course, Capcom could pull that same trick in several ways. Whether it’s taking us back to Spencer Mansion, having Albert Wesker return from the dead, or even just bringing back Lisa Trevor, the sky is the limit for callbacks in Resident Evil Requiem. We, as a fanbase, just have to hope it’s done with tact and we aren’t just rehashing the same plot points we went through two decades ago.

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