What to do with the old cast moving forward

[KManX89]

As you're all surely aware by now, Capcom has revealed-to many long-time fan's displeasure-that RE7 would feature an all-new cast with none of the originals returning.

As expected, it was met with huge disappointment by the fans. Many hoped some of the originals-most notably Jill-would appear in some fashion.

One thing to keep in mind, though: they're now getting up there in age. Chris, Jill, Leon, Ada, etc. are in their 40s now going by the timeline. With the trend of new RE games (be it numbered titles or spin-offs, Revelations etc.) coming out every couple years, they're certainly not getting any younger with each installment. They only have so many more cracks at saving the world from bio-terror before ultimately aging out of it (approaching or even hitting their 50s). Sadly to say, as much as we wanted some of them to come back in RE7, it was already approaching the time to move on from them, so I more-or-less saw this coming sooner or later.

Like any fanbase, though, many fans aren't ready to move on from their fan favorites (a viewpoint I can totally empathize with) and want to see them in Capcom's long-term future, which leads me to the point of this thread...

What direction would you like them to take/see them taking with the original cast?

One of the upcoming numbered sequels (RE8) having one final hoorah featuring all of the originals in the same game maybe before making way for the new blood? Then featuring the old cast in consultant/researcher roles in subsequent games?

Do what D.C. does with their comic book franchises and keep constantly adjusting the timeline every couple of years so they're still in their 40s for the foreseeable future?

Perhaps we could see them take a Tomb Raider reboot approach and reboot the franchise, and have it run alongside the current series, with younger redesigns of the old cast (Chris, Jill, Leon, Ada, Claire, etc.) so they're all back in their 20s. Then, to avoid confusion with the current continuity, any sequels in the REboot saga would have subtitles instead of numbers, perhaps a logo change to boot. Would you be down for this? Hey, they did this with DMC (in a reboot that nobody asked for), so why the hell not?

Thoughts/ideas welcomed.

 

[Venomous Oddball]

The main characters aren't that old. Barry just came back and Claire still isn't even as old as he was in RE1. Jill also might age slower/have a longer lifespan like Sherry because of the viruses.

 

[Cheer]

Rebooting the games with younger characters won't make any real difference. Because after a couple of years we will end up in the same place we are in right now.

 

[Hel]

I still don't get why it has to be an all-new cast anyway. There are other characters in the RE universe that are both younger and less experienced than our five veterans: Sherry, Jake, Helena, Piers and Sheva come to mind. Sure, they are all BSAA soldiers/mercenaries/government agents, so they do have some experience, but so did Chris and Jill back in RE1, and being members of an elite police division certainly didn't stop them (or the player) from being scared. I don't see why they can't do that again, but with different characters.

As for our veterans, well: Surprise them and they will be scared too. Don't send them as part of a unit like Chris in RE6, or do it like in RE1, where the party slowly dwindles. Don't equip them with machine guns and grenade launchers, at least not right away. It could still work. And I don't think forty or even fifty is too old to fight. Anyone who used to think so before Revelations 2 has been proven wrong by Barry. Also, if Capcom finally dropped their compulsive idea that every numbered title has to be set in the year of its release, age would not be a problem at all.

So yeah. That's what could be done with the old cast. Because every argument Capcom have presented so far about scary games no longer working with people like Chris or Jill as main characters is bull$hit.