Nick Apostolides is now a Resident Evil veteran. After stepping into the shoes of Leon Kennedy for Resident Evil 2’s remake, the actor has portrayed the character across the third and fourth games’ remakes, and the newly released Resident Evil Requiem.
Requiem, however, represents the first time that Apostolides has performed as the character in a brand new Resident Evil title. Prior to its release, we got to sit down with the actor to discuss his love of the franchise, the pressure of playing Leon, and how he came up with some of the character’s most memorable quips.
Returning To Raccoon City As Leon
“I would say the resurgence began with the release of 7, Biohazard,” Apostolides tells me as we look back on the series. “I think Capcom corrected course with that game. It went back to the roots of limited resource survival horror, and to be a part of this new era, starting out with 2 for me, it’s been a gift.”
There were around 15 months between Apostolides’ work on Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil Requiem. But, despite the relatively short turnaround, the actor has no complaints, as he has long been a massive fan of the franchise. With Requiem, he’s getting the chance to do something not many people will ever have: completing a game that he’s the protagonist in – and on his birthday.
“It’s been the greatest honor of my life because I’ve just adored this franchise since almost day one,” he says. “I started back in 1998, and so now to be a part of it and helping to shape where it’s going, well, a character anyway, that means a lot to me.
“I’m going to go home and play it with my little brother the day it’s released. It’ll take us a few days to beat it, and my birthday is March 1 [48 hours after Requiem’s release], so the plan is to beat this game on my birthday, with my little bro.”
Requiem’s Leon is the first time that Apostolides has been allowed to put his personal spin on the character, and it’s an interesting project for him. This iteration of Leon is different. He’s grizzled and experienced in ways he perhaps wasn’t in the earlier games.
“He was in his 20s in those two games [Resident Evil 2 and 4]. He started to get a lot more confident in 4, but Requiem is about twice his life later, he’s almost 50 years old,” Apostolides tells me. “He’s experienced so much in the canon of Resident Evil, between the games and movies, it was all stuff I had to take into consideration.”
This new version of Leon felt a little closer to home for Apostolides. He was able to draw on his real-world experience to help shape the character, and while he hasn’t lived through a zombie apocalypse, he’s been through enough to understand.
“Everything had to weigh on him after all this time. All the loss he has suffered had to be layered onto this character that I’ve built with Capcom, and he had to be heavy,” he tells me. “I understand in my own life what that’s like because I’m almost 42. And stuff just happens. I wouldn’t say I’m a spring chicken anymore because I’ve seen a lot of stuff, and I’ve been through a lot of stuff, and it takes a toll. So I always had to keep that in mind.”
Resident Evil 4 Leon was simply fun for me because it was a little lighter. It was more like an 80s action movie. I was playing out a childhood dream.
With each version of Leon so vastly different, I asked Apostolides if he had a favorite to play, and while he didn’t, there were elements of both that he loved.
“I would say Resident Evil 4 Leon was simply fun for me because it was a little lighter. It was more like an 80s action movie. I was playing out a childhood dream,” he recalls. “I think this new one in Requiem was simply more challenging. Of course, it’s fun. I enjoyed every moment of it. But it was more challenging because I had to think about so much more. We had never seen a Leon this old. So I had to come up with a lot of new ideas. How does he move? Is he a bit slower? Is he in more pain? The voice, putting the labored voice in there. Everything’s a little bit harder to do.”
Capcom showed the actor a lot of trust, especially after his performance in Resident Evil 2’s remake, and so together, they helped shape this new iteration of Leon. It was Resident Evil 4 where the relationship between the two really flourished, though.
“In 4, they would ask me a lot of line recommendations. If I said, ‘Hey, I really think Leon would do this in this scene,’ they would incorporate changes in cinematics because of ideas of mine,” he says. “There were some brilliant lines written by the team and also influenced by the localization director as well. But some of them were generic. A lot of Leon’s one-liners and zingers, they were generic. And I say, ‘we can make these really cook.’ And so I probably spit out about 50 of them in different scenarios in the game.”
When I ask Apostolides if he could recount any of his favorites, he tells me, “I came up with: ‘You want to get ugly? Let’s get ugly,’ when he fights Mendez, ‘Tell someone who gives a sh*t’, when he shoots Saddler in the face, and ‘You talk too much’ to Salazar before shooting him in the face.”
Leon’s Grand Requiem Reveal
In the lead-up to Resident Evil Requiem, the game’s developers did everything in their power to keep Leon’s involvement a secret. They refused to discuss it with me when I interviewed them, a common theme among conversations they had, and despite what felt like a million leaks, they held off on the reveal until the last minute. Apostolides tells me that while the will-he-won’t-he saga was going on, he just wanted to “grab a bucket of popcorn.”
“I don’t spend a lot of time on social media, but it’s impossible to not see it. And it was everywhere, and it was funny,” he recalls. “A year ago, pictures of older Leon would come up, and I’d be like, ‘How are they even? They haven’t even announced the game yet. How do they know we were working on it?’”
Despite, quite obviously, being Apostolides’ voice in the trailers for Leon, the actor wasn’t allowed to confirm it was him until Capcom revealed it, telling me, “I wasn’t able to announce my involvement publicly until February 19 [when the casting was confirmed] . And so I had to still deny everything. I got congratulated thousands of times online. And I just had no comment. ‘I know you recognize my voice, but no comment.’ That’s kind of even more awkward. I think I was dreading the announcement of Leon.”
I think I was dreading the announcement of Leon.
Ultimately, Leon’s reveal came as no surprise, but the outpouring of love (and lust) for the character was a bit more of a shock. Immediately after his reveal, the internet began to thirst for the older version of the character, something Apostolides was very much aware of.
“I mean, that’s what you get when you portray a highly, highly sexualized and good-looking character,” he says, chuckling. “I could have got a role as like an ogre or something, but he’s a handsome, charming guy. It’s hard not to like him. And so the internet put him in these thirst trap memes. I think it’s funny as hell, personally. I’ve seen some that make me laugh out loud by myself.”
With Resident Evil Requiem being the first game in the series to offer both first-person and third-person perspectives, I wrapped my chat by asking Apostolides how he planned to play the game.
“When Resident Evil 7 was about to release, I was working with the same production team. And they actually asked me to promise them that the first time I play that game is in VR, because that’s the game was developed for VR, specifically for VR,” he says. “This time around, they said, ‘We recommend highly that you play Grace in first person and Leon and third,’ and I’m going to do it. I trust the developers on this one. They are brilliant.”
- Released
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February 27, 2026
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Strong Language, In-Game Purchases
