WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Resident Evil Village, available now.
Resident Evil Village brings to a decisive end to the story of returning protagonist Ethan Winters, with the Resident Evil 7: Biohazard hero sacrificing his life to save his family and prevent the mutamycete mold from spreading uncontrollably around the world. However, even though Ethan may have died in a fiery blast in Eastern Europe, there are still plenty of loose ends that practically demand a follow up in installments, including a potential return of longtime main character Chris Redfield as a playable protagonist moving forward.
Chris was briefly playable towards the end of Village, taking point on a military strike on the growing mutamycete and the monsters roaming free around the small town. He was shocked that the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA) had proceeded with their own apparent strike on the village, complicating the situation. In the aftermath, Chris' team managed to recover the body of a BSAA soldier evidently killed in action. As Chris and Mia Winters mourn Ethan's death, they discover that the corpse is actually of a bioweapon resembling those infected by the T-Virus.
Upon making this grim discovery, Chris resolves to get to the bottom of this disturbing mystery and decides he and his team will investigate the BSAA's headquarters for answers. The next game could follow this investigation as Ethan unravels why exactly the BSAA is employing the use of bioweapons on the field and what their connections to Mother Miranda and the mutamycete may be. Chris previously went an investigative mission across Europe targeting the Umbrella Corporation in 2000's Resident Evil - Code: Veronica and a Village sequel could be tonally similar -- just like how Village drew heavy thematic influence from 2005's Resident Evil 4.
Of course, there's also the matter of Ethan and Mia's daughter Rosemary. Over the course of Village, Ethan learned that Rose had inherited the unique and incredible abilities her parents received in Biohazard from their own experiences with mutagenic mold. This includes regenerative abilities that allow Rose to survive being dismembered and reassembled by Miranda ahead of an occult ritual to resurrect her own daughter, Eva.
A post-credits scene reveals Rose as a teenager, apparently in the employ of Chris, who has been helping her control her abilities, while using her powers to take on bioweapons around the world. This sets up Rose to be the protagonist of her own adventure, with Chris possibly in a mentor role, with a mission that could have both of them entangled in an ongoing conflict against the compromised BSAA.
Resident Evil Village concludes Ethan Winters' story, the main mutamycete mold that spurred the events of Biohazard and, tacitly, the creation of the Umbrella Corporation -- but this has always been a franchise where evil never truly ends. Village ends with both Chris Redfield and Rose Winters having their own paths to follow. Future Resident Evil games could provide a dual-narrative, criss-crossing between timelines with Chris providing the conventional military action and Rose tapping into her mutagenic powers in ways her parents never could. Plus, with bioweapons now being covertly used by intergovernmental organizations, Chris' fight to purge the world of Umbrella's legacy has just gotten considerably more complicated.
Developed and published by Capcom, Resident Evil Village is available now for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC and Google Stadia.
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