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The Face of the Franchise(?)

berto

I Saw the Devil
So, quick back story: I got into a discussion about the most popular character in the franchise at a different forum. It started when this guy made a comment about how people were not happy that they changed Chris' face in 7, the very face of the franchise himself. The struck me because I always thought Jill was the face of the franchise, if not Jill then Nemesis. We got into a discussion and people kept saying that it's not because she's not the most popular, some people were saying Chris is and others were saying Leon is which just deteriorated into people saying that's just your favorite and you just don't want to admit it. Personally, I'm Leon fan since RE4 was my first game so I do think of him as the face of the franchise but if I'm honest with myself maybe that is no longer the case.

I'm curious, as another Resident Evil dedicated forum, and as removed from favoritism as anyone can be, who do you guys think is currently the 'face' of Resident Evil?

I was gonna make this a poll but I just didn't know who to add. Chris, Jill, Leon, Nemesis, the zombies? Maybe I'd miss someone, or thing. Might as well just get opinions and then count them up when I know what names to put on a hat.
 

Hel

Goddess of the Dead
Premium
So there's actually people saying that Jill isn't popular? :eek: I don't have any statistics, but I remember a poll from a few years ago stating that she and Wesker were the most beloved characters of the entire series. I mean, she's not my favourite, but I always assumed she was pretty much everybody else's.

That aside, I also used to think of Jill as the face of the franchise for a while, even for the same reason you felt this way about Leon: Because I got into RE through her game (Nemesis), and the second one that I played (RE1) featured her as well. She seemed to be everywhere until I played RE2 and realised that was not the case. Because of the game's tendency to cycle through a wider selection of main characters instead of always focusing on only one or two, with some not appearing at all for years, I wouldn't call any of them the face of RE nowadays. One thing that keeps showing up is the eye...

Lec9727.png


... but not in every game either. Still, I think I'm more inclined to view the eye as the "face", or rather the symbol of RE, than any of the characters.

The CGI movies, however, are a different, more obvious case. They definitely have Leon's face.
 

Airaku

Stray Jedi
From what I've notice is that it changes a lot. At one point it seems like Jill was, then Leon, then Chris, then Chris, and more Chris. Lately it seems Capcom uses Chris as the face of the series. He was in Project X Zone with Jill. He was with Wesker and Marvel vs Capcom 3 with Albert Wesker and he's back as a highlight in Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite. Leon is definitely runner up as he's in all the CGI films and what not.

They definitely show different parts of the series. Chris is more with the BSAA side and dealing with Wesker's story where Leon is more of the CIA spy type stuff. A bit more political with out feeling political.
 

berto

I Saw the Devil
I remember a poll from a few years ago stating that she and Wesker were the most beloved characters of the entire series
She was also first place on a watchmojo countdown for characters and pretty high on fan videos from Mexican fans. Personally I thought that she, in that blue top, was the most recognizable character and, by extension, the face of the franchise. Plus her appearance in MvC2 suggested to me that she was the fan favorite.
Now a days Chris is the one capcom is pushing on other media, like stage, xZone, and the MvC games but he has 4 faces, how can he be the face when he's got so many?
 

Turo602

The King of Kings
In terms of popularity, I'd say it goes Wesker, Jill, Leon, then Chris. However, it's difficult to say anyone is the face of the series when there's so many characters who each represent the series so well based on how popular their respective games are.

The only reason Jill was so popular back in the day was because most people probably played the first game as her due to Chris having a smaller inventory and acting as the game's hard mode. She also starred in her own game with the iconic Nemesis. But then Leon blew up with Resident Evil 4 because it's Resident Evil 4. Everything since though, has been about Chris, which has given him some much needed exposure. He's definitely the most central character in the franchise, being Wesker's arch-nemesis and all, but he's never really had the spotlight all to himself like Jill and Leon have.

If anything, the face of the franchise is Wesker. He's the one constant in Resident Evil no matter who stars in what game. He's the antagonist and the ultimate endgame. Even after his demise in 5, the series can't stop alluding to him. First there was Jake, then there's Alex, and now he's apparently tied to some of the stuff happening in RE7.
 

blivvy

Master of unlocking...
Premium
Well if you search Resident Evil on google images, Leon is the 1st character to show up (Milla Jovovich doesn't count). So there's the answer :p
 

Mr.R

Well-Known Member
Like it was said before, to me, the face of the franchise changed through the times. There was no face on RE and RE2, since they starred different characters, but after RE3 (and even through Code Veronica), I think Jill was the face of the series. RE3 was pretty popular, Jill was in Marvel vs Capcom 2 and was the first character from the games to appear on the live action music (Plus, Alice's outfit in the first movie kinda reminds me of RE3 Jill). Jill was pretty popular back than, and a lot of magazines talking about the series used her as cover. RE4 brought Leon to the spotlight, and there was Degeneration and Darkside Chronicles. RE4 was also very, very popular and for a while Leon was probably the face of the franchise. Nowadays it's probably Chris. Capcom has been overexposing him a lot. I kinda likes Chris, he's not my favorite, but I like him. I also think that's time for Capcom to put him in a bench for a while. I grow used to changing characters and all, but it's all about Chris these days. So, I suppose Chris is the face of the franchise now. But with RE, everything can change in the near future. Maybe the RE2 Remake move Leon and Claire back to the spotlight.

About Wesker...I don't think he was ever the face of the franchise. He was always there, of course. And he got pretty popular after CVX, because of his powers. He was a big shot in Marvel vs Capcom 3, but I don't think he was ever as popular as Jill or Leon, for example. Or even Chris (at least now.)
 

berto

I Saw the Devil
For the record, the only Funko Pop figures for Resident Evil are Jill, Nemesis, a hunter, Tyrant, a licker and Leon.
 

Turo602

The King of Kings
For the record, the only Funko Pop figures for Resident Evil are Jill, Nemesis, a hunter, Tyrant, a licker and Leon.

That doesn't really mean anything. The only Resident Evil nenderoid is Chris too. That doesn't mean anything though.

What makes anyone the face anyway? Popularity or relevance? Chris is in more games than anybody, that makes him more relevant than the more popular characters. But does that make him the face of the franchise or just the face of the games he's starred in? He along with anyone is just as viable of a face because they're all popular and iconic enough to represent the series. By anyone, I mean the obvious characters like Chris, Jill, Leon, Claire, and Wesker. Even zombies, the tyrant, and Nemesis are pretty iconic. Hell, Umbrella is probably the most recognizable thing in this franchise.
 

Venomous Oddball

Also Known as Maddy
I said Chris because he's iconic and in some of the most important games of the series. A few other characters have their own arguments too, but Chris is the archenemy of Wesker, who was, of course, the main antagonist of the series up until he died, and Chris was one of the ones who took him down.
 

berto

I Saw the Devil
What makes anyone the face anyway? Popularity or relevance
I actually wondered the same thing.
Popularity is hard to mesure and relevance is always shifting but neither is irrelevant to the question. At one point I thought that it was the thing people who didn't follow the games thought about when they heard the name; in that case it might be zombies. At the same time whatever is the most recognizable thing in the most iconic games could also be so. I guess you could also argue that it's the first person or thing most think about when they hear the name, not just the none fanatic audience, so arguably determined by popularity.
 

Roku

Well-Known Member
I always assumed that it was Leon (and not because he's my fav).
I thought that because he seems to be the most well know character.
From what I saw, people that don't play the games know Leon; and sure, some of them know Chris as well (and sometimes Jill, but that's just because ''she's the girl that escapes from Nemesis, right?''), but that's a minority.

Of course this doesn't mean anything, but that's why I thought that.
 

berto

I Saw the Devil
I always assumed that it was Leon (and not because he's my fav).
:biggrin::lol::lol::evil:
That's funny because I always thought it was Leon because he's my favorite. That's probably why I always chucked it off to fanaticism on my part.
 

Roku

Well-Known Member
:biggrin::lol::lol::evil:
That's funny because I always thought it was Leon because he's my favorite. That's probably why I always chucked it off to fanaticism on my part.

Yeah, at first I thought so too xD
But then I started to talk about RE with some of my friends (and with other people too), and I noticed that most of them didn't know a thing about the RE-universe other than the fact that Leon was the protagonist of RE4 (and that he had to save a girl that screamed 'heeeeelp me' all the time xD).
 

black 93

Well-Known Member
Id say Wesker. As Turo said, he's been the one constant in the series and has been involved with pretty much every incident directly or indirectly. Even though he's been dead for 8 years by the time we reach RE7, his presence is still felt and probably always will be in some way.
 
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