Resident Evil Requiem second playable character leaked and it’s not who you think

A retail listing for Resident Evil Requiem appears to have revealed the return of an unexpected character, ahead of The Game Awards.

Resident Evil Requiem is less than three months away, and while Capcom has shown several sequences from the sequel, there are still many questions surrounding it.

One of the biggest is connected to an ongoing rumour of another playable character, beyond FBI agent Grace Ashcroft, with Resident Evil 4’s Leon S. Kennedy heavily tipped to appear – despite Capcom themselves downplaying the chances of his return.

Many assumed this was Capcom being coy about a Leon reveal, but a store listing for a deluxe version of Resident Evil Requiem appears to have confirmed an entirely different second playable character. If you want to avoid any potential spoilers, look away now.

A listing on US retailer GameStop for Resident Evil Requiem’s Deluxe Steelbook Edition on PC, which is still up at the time of writing, refers to Rosemary Winters, aka the daughter of Resident Evil Village’s protagonist, Ethan Winters.

According to the listing, the deluxe edition comes with ‘a unique cosmetic look for Rose’s visor’, along with ‘three exclusive outfits for Rosemary Winters’.

This strongly suggests Rose will play a key role in the upcoming sequel and, by extension, implies the DLC for Resident Evil Village, where Rose is a playable character, might be more significant in the story than many perhaps expected.

Interestingly, if this is all true and not some bizarre GameStop fumble, the game’s place on the timeline throws up some questions of how Rose will be featured. Resident Evil Requiem is set around 30 years after Raccoon City’s destruction, which places it roughly in the year 2028, nine years prior to the Shadows Of Rose DLC in 2037.

Rosemary Winters is 16-years-old in the Shadows Of Rose DLC, so this means the character is still a young child around the time of Requiem. As such, unless we’ll be playing as a kid version of Rose, it’s likely a portion of Resident Evil Requiem will be set in the future, beyond what we’ve seen in the trailers.

A description from the same GameStop listing alludes to some narrative ties to Resident Evil 7, reinforcing a Winters connection. ‘The nightmare never truly ends; it just evolves,’ it reads. ‘Resident Evil Requiem drags you back into the heart of survival horror, picking up threads left dangling in the shadows of Raccoon City and the Baker estate. But this isn’t a mission you’re prepared for. This is a descent.’

The Baker estate is the setting from Resident Evil 7, which acted as a soft reboot for the series.

Elsewhere in the listing, an expansion pass titled ‘The Sanctuary’ is said to include ‘two new story scenarios and a major Mercenaries mode update’ – confirming the return of the bonus shooter mode, along with what sounds like two planned story expansions.

Capcom hasn’t officially announced the return of Rose in Resident Evil Requiem but it does make some sense, especially as it appears to be pitched as a grand culmination of the series so far. Grace Ashcroft herself is the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft from Resident Evil Outbreak, who died in mysterious circumstances, so a pairing with Rose following the (spoilers!) death of her father, Ethan, is apt in some respects.

If these details are being flaunted in special edition listings, there’s a strong chance Rose’s inclusion will be revealed at The Game Awards on Friday, December 12, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Resident Evil Requiem, which is set to feature the return of classic zombies, is slated to launch across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC on February 27, 2026.

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