Pablo Kuntz (Resident Evil)[6] Richard Waugh (Code: Veronica, Resident Evil Zero and 4, Wesker's Report)[7] Peter Jessop (Resident Evil remake)[8] D. C. Douglas (The Umbrella Chronicles, Resident Evil 5, The Darkside Chronicles, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, The Mercenaries 3D, Revelations 2, Resident Evil Zero HD Remaster (Wesker Mode only), Umbrella Corps, Teppen)[7] Connor Fogarty (Dead by Daylight)[9] Craig Burnatowski (Resident Evil 4 remake)[10]
Albert Wesker (アルバート・ウェスカー, Arubāto Wesukā) is a character in Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan), a survival horror video game series created by the Japanese company Capcom. He was first introduced in the original Resident Evil (1996) as the captain of the Raccoon Police Department's Special Tactics And Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) unit. Wesker has been one of the series' main antagonists as a member of the Umbrella Corporation, manipulating story events behind-the-scenes. To further his own plans, Wesker betrays his allies, fakes his death, gains superhuman abilities, and works with both Umbrella's mysterious rival company and their successors in the field of biological weapons development until his ultimate defeat by Chris Redfield in Resident Evil 5 (2009).
Wesker was conceptualized by writer Kenichi Iwao, who envisioned Wesker as an arrogant, intelligent, and unsympathetic character. Wesker is presented as a virologist focused on advancing human evolution, and later becomes a bio-terrorist obsessed with eradicating humanity. Wesker possesses superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and regeneration, and he mutates into a more powerful form in Resident Evil 5.
Wesker appears in several Resident Evil games, and other game franchises, including Marvel vs. Capcom, Teppen, and Dead by Daylight. Several actors have portrayed Wesker, including Jason O'Mara, Shawn Roberts, Tom Hopper, and Lance Reddick in the live-action Resident Evil series. Wesker has received mostly positive reviews from video game publications, with critics praising him for being one of the most memorable video game villains.
Concept and design
"I imagined that he was in a special forces setting. Unmarried with no siblings, but was born into an ordinary American middle-class family. However, he was already too formed and believed the world to be worthless. He was a genius with scant feelings. He enjoyed ordinary family vacations, even displayed excellent grades in sport, but his heart was always cold and he was acting to blend himself into society. He was a clear-headed but tragic individual lacking human emotions. The only way he could live was to self-affirm his intense elitism."[16]
—Kenichi Iwao on designing Wesker's character, Crimson-Head.com
Wesker was created by Kenichi Iwao, who was recruited by Shinji Mikami to work on the original Resident Evil midway through its development.[17] The main characters were originally intended to be cyborg police officers,[18] until Iwao discarded the idea and completely redesigned the characters and the game's backstory.[18] He envisioned Wesker as a former special forces member who possessed exceptional intelligence and physical prowess, with a cold demeanor that matched his egotistical mindset.[16] His co-workers suggested making the character a traitor who betrays the protagonist.[16] The game's designers ultimately developed Wesker into the commander of the protagonists' elite police task force, who is secretly employed as a virologist for the Umbrella Corporation.[19] His drive to develop viral agents and engineer the ultimate lifeform is a central plotline in the Resident Evil series.[19][20] Wesker is depicted as a white male with blonde hair in the video games and movies,[21][19] who consistently wears his black sunglasses.[22]
During the finale of Resident Evil 5, Wesker sheds his human appearance when he infects himself with the Uroboros virus, a volatile and mutagenic viral agent.[23][24] The Uroboros virus grants him more strength, while also transforming his arms into tentacles that allow him to absorb and wield metallic objects as weapons.[25] The early concept sketches of his Uroboros mutation differed significantly from the final version.[23][24] In the initial design, his combat style would have relied solely on his mental powers to manipulate Uroboros.[23][24][25] This concept was shaped by the one-on-one battle between Wesker and Chris Redfield, without a co-op partner.[23][24][25] However, with the addition of Sheva Alomar as a co-op partner, adjustments were made to bolster Wesker's abilities and provide him with additional makeshift weaponry for the final boss battle.[23][24][25]
Portrayal
Wesker was originally voiced by Pablo Kuntz, who said that Capcom's staff gave him limited direction and that he did not fully understand the game's plot at the time of recording.[6] He later reflected on his performance, stating: "I know the acting was slightly over-the-top, but you know, the more we played RE1, the more the voices seemed to harmonize with everything the gameplay offered."[6] He was also surprised at the character's popularity among fans, commenting that it was "a wonderful experience" to voice him.[26]
Ken Lally provided a motion capture for Wesker in Resident Evil 5.[14] In the 2023 remake of Resident Evil 4, he was voiced and motion captured by Craig Burnatowski.[10][15] Eric Pirius portrayed Wesker in the Resident Evil live-action cutscenes.[1] In Resident Evil: Extinction, Jason O'Mara portrayed Wesker,[2] and Shawn Roberts portrayed him in Resident Evil: Afterlife, Resident Evil: Retribution and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.[3]Tom Hopper portrayed Wesker in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.[4] In contrast to other video game and film characterizations of Wesker, He portrayed Wesker as a sympathetic character with a friendly demeanor, who begrudgingly followed orders from the Umbrella Corporation to betray his compatriots.[30] He explained that the filmmakers did not want Wesker to be a stereotypical villain, stating: "We wanted him to be likable. We're seeing who he really is underneath the sunglasses."[31]
In the 2022 Resident Evil Netflix series, Lance Reddick portrayed the character; he was the first person of color to do so.[5][32] The series' showrunners did not want to limit themselves to actors who resembled Wesker's in-game appearance; showrunner Andrew Dabb stated that "you're making the show weaker by going with someone that may be more aesthetically a match to the game".[32] Reddick did not know that the character was from a video game series, stating: "When I was doing it, I didn't think of having to play an already established iconic character, I just kept trying to bring what was on the page to life."[33] He further said that "this Wesker, although very very much based on the Wesker in the games, isn't exactly him".[22]
Appearances
In Resident Evil series
Every game in the series is set in the fictional American metropolitan area Raccoon City until its destruction at the end of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.[34] Subsequent games featuring Wesker take place on an international scale: including Antarctica, Russia, Spain, and Africa.[34][35] Wesker's presence was initially limited to cutscenes in the main Resident Evil games, where he manipulates the series' events from the background.[36] He leverages his genius-level intellect to engineer mutagenic viruses to forcefully advance human evolution.[19] Wesker's backstory was largely left undeveloped until the release of The Wesker Report, a fictional documentary, which details his virology research and role within the Umbrella Corporation.[37]Resident Evil 5 reveals the Umbrella Corporation raised Wesker as part of a eugenics program, which offers him the best education, but also indoctrinates him into developing misanthropic views and a superiority complex.[19][38][39]
Wesker debuted in the original Resident Evil (1998), where he is the captain of S.T.A.R.S., a special forces police unit in Raccoon City.[40][35] He initially helps the player by providing supplies and useful information. However, the protagonists learn Wesker is secretly working with the Umbrella Corporation to develop mutagenic viruses and bio-organic weapons (BOWs).[35] Wesker is seemingly killed after releasing his latest BOW, the Tyrant, which unexpectedly impales him during the game's finale.[35]
He returned to the franchise after a two-game hiatus in Resident Evil – Code: Veronica (2000) as the game's secondary antagonist.[16][41][42] He survives his apparent death due to an experimental virus that not only resurrected him after suffering grievous injuries, but also endowed him with enhanced strength, speed, and agility.[19][43] Wesker, now working for an unnamed rival to the Umbrella Corporation, conducts a raid on a secret research facility in Antarctica.[35] He is defeated by Chris Redfield, who arrives at the facility while searching for his missing sister Claire.[35] Wesker makes a cameo in Resident Evil 4 (2005), and its 2023 remake, where he is revealed to be working with Ada Wong to obtain a specimen sample for further BOW research.[44][10] He is also a playable character in Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), which retells portions of the series' lore through his perspective.[45]
He is the central antagonist in Resident Evil 5 (2009), where he conspires to release the Uroboros virus across the world and trigger an extinction event. He appears in-game as a nigh-invincible boss during the game's penultimate battle, who effortlessly dodges and parries most of the player's attacks.[46] Chris and his partner Sheva ultimately halt his plans and kill Wesker in an active volcano at the end of the game.[35][47][43] Despite his demise, his plans continue to drive the plot of the series, as his viral and BOW research causes many of the disasters and outbreaks in the subsequent games.[48] Series producer Masachika Kawata has confirmed that in the mainline video games, Wesker is truly dead.[47]
Wesker also appears in several non-canonical games in the series. He appears in "The Mercenaries" mini-game for Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, as well as Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D.[49][50] Wesker appears in Resident Evil: Revelations 2 as a playable character in Raid Mode.[51] He is a playable character in the unlockable "Wesker Mode" for Resident Evil Zero HD Remaster, where he replaces one of the game's protagonists. While playing as Wesker, the player can deliver powerful melee attacks, sprint rapidly, and release a chargeable energy blast that damages nearby enemies.[52] In printed trading card media, he appears in the Bandai-produced Resident Evil: The Deck Building Game.[53]
In Resident Evil films
Wesker's character was adapted for the 2007 live-action film Resident Evil: Extinction. This version of Wesker is the head of the Umbrella Corporation, unlike Wesker's role in the games as a renegade high-ranking Umbrella researcher. He runs Umbrella's operations from behind the scenes, holding meetings via hologram with his underground board of directors in Tokyo. Originally, Wesker's character was not intended to be in the film, with his role and lines in the script being given to Commander Okamoto.[2][3] Shawn Roberts took over the role of Wesker in 2010's Resident Evil: Afterlife as a main antagonist of the film.[3] He later appears in Resident Evil: Retribution as a defector from Umbrella, who sends Ada to rescue Alice from an underground Russian Umbrella outpost run by the Red Queen, who has taken over the rest of Umbrella.[3] Wesker returns in the sixth film, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, where he betrays Alice. She then tracks him down to the Hive and kills him. His death triggers a dead man's switch, which destroys the Hive and everyone within, including Alicia Marcus, the Umbrella High Command, and thousands of others held in stasis.[3] In the reboot film Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, Wesker is played by Tom Hopper, in which he is portrayed as a more sympathetic police officer for the Raccoon Police Department and serves as a secondary antagonist.[54] Notwithstanding his appearance in the Resident Evil Netflix series, which delves into his backstory and personal experiments with human cloning.[55][56][57] Lance Reddick played the role of Albert Wesker in Netflix's 2022 live action Resident Evil TV series.[5]
Other appearances
Outside of the Resident Evil series, Wesker appears in the 2019 game Teppen.[58] He appears in the crossover fighting game Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds as a playable character and a key part of the game's plot, in which he joins forces with Doctor Doom as the two build an army of supervillains and try to conquer both universes.[59] He also makes a guest appearance as an unlockable character skin in Lost Planet 2.[60] Wesker appears as a spirit in the Nintendo crossover video game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.[61] In 2022, he appears as a playable character in the asymmetrical survival horror gameDead by Daylight.[62]
Critical reception
Game publications described Wesker as one of the best[63][64][65] and most memorable villains in video game history.[66][67] Kazuma Hashimoto of Polygon noted that the character's light skin and blonde hair design evokes the aesthetic of the Nazi ideal of Übermensch, reflecting the series' "core" theme of eugenics.[19] She noted that Wesker's monologue in Resident Evil 5 fully illustrates the visual metaphor and stand-in Wesker embodies, drawing on standard Social Darwinist talking points from Friedrich Nietzsche's Übermensch theory. She also said that since Nietzche passed away a few years before the Nazi Party was founded, he was unable to personally propose his theory to them, but his sister did. Subsequently, the Nazi Party used the concept of the Übermensch to uphold white supremacy. Together with other themes from the series, Wesker's monologue creates a sense of terror that transcends the visual into something genuinely unsettling and intensely political.[19] Bozon of IGN said aside from the three chapters in each of the four "incidents" in Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles that their favorite side quest was it revolves around Wesker. Additionally, he claimed that although the levels and adversaries are the same, the game has a little more complexity and story because you have to choose various courses and employ different weapons along the way,[68] while Ryan Davis of GameSpot said that the voice acting of Wesker "fits better" and "entertaining while serving as a narrator of the game."[69] Jesse Schedeen of IGN discussed his appearances across the franchise, which she said that Wesker is "the best bad guys are the ones that wear shades."[60] Rich Stanton of Eurogamer said that "Chris and Wesker's final showdown is both a terrible boss fight and unforgettable, because despite the faults it showcases a certain mindset about what an ultimate action climax should be."[46]GamesRadar+ staff described him among the "best characters in the three decades of Capcom's history" and wrote that "even after his death in Resident Evil 5, Albert Wesker shows no signs of stopping, which is just the way we like it".[70] Matt Cundy of GamesRadar+ praised Wesker's death scene in Resident Evil 5, as it showed the character's strength.[71] Conversely, Shubhankar Parijat of GamingBolt stated that "Resident Evil hasn't had an overbearing villainous presence since Wesker died", but noted that "his arc was wrapped up very well, and bringing him back might not be the best idea".[72]
The character has also received negative critical reviews. Andy Kelly of PlayStation Official Magazine described the battle with Wesker in Resident Evil 5 as one of the worst boss fights in a PlayStation 3 game.[73] Obi Anyanwu of Complex described him as the "second-douchiest" video game character, stating that "Wesker has a following, yes, but there's something very Agent Smith, a villain in the The Matrix, about him that makes us shake our heads".[74] Bob Mackey of 1UP.com has called him one of the least scary things in Resident Evil, suggesting that, "to accentuate his alleged nefariousness, ... Wesker grow a zombie mustache that twirls itself".[75]
Lance Reddick's portrayal of Wesker in Netflix's Resident Evil series was lauded by critics. Polygon described his performance as the "perfect balance of menacing and mannered".[76] Charles Pulliam-Moore of The Verge offered a mixed review of the series, but cited Wesker as the show's best character, which they attributed to Reddick's "steely, menacing energy".[77] While Paul Tassi of Forbes was critical of the series, they regarded Reddick and his portrayal of a revised Wesker as highlights.[78] Taylor Lyes of IGN noted that the Netflix series' portrayal and characterization of Wesker diverged from his video game counterpart, but commended the character's revised backstory and story arc.[79] However, Shawn Roberts' performance as Wesker in Resident Evil: Afterlife was criticized by Jim Vejvoda of IGN, writing his portrayal of the character is "one-dimensionally evil and over-the-top", which he attributed to poorly-developed writing.[80]
^"映画『バイオハザード：ザ・ファイナル』日本語吹き替えに最強の布陣が集結！ 豪華声優陣を発表". Famitsu (in Japanese). 2016-12-14. Archived from the original on 2023-06-20. Retrieved 2023-06-20. 立木文彦（アルバート・ウェスカー役） Q.シリーズ最終作となる本作の日本語吹替えを担当するにあたり率直な感想は？ 先進的でスタイリッシュな『バイオハザード』に、ラストとなる今作でも参加でき、またウェスカーという持ち役を引き続いて演じさせて頂き、とても嬉しく思っています。本作もラストに相応しい声入れができました。
^ abMiller, Zachary (January 29, 2012). "Resident Evil: The Story So Far". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
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