Resident Evil 2 Director Confirms Leon S. Kennedy Named After Léon: The Professional

After 30 years of fan theories, Resident Evil 2 director Hideki Kamiya confirmed Leon S. Kennedy's name came from Léon: The Professional.

Kamiya dropped the confirmation in a post on X/Twitter today. Fans suspected the connection to the 1994 film for decades, but this marks the first official acknowledgment from the man who named him.

Kamiya said he was brainstorming names with Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami when several ideas got rejected. He suggested (via Google Translate), "Well, why don't we just take it from that movie I watched the other day?"

"And his response was simply, 'Yeah, that works,'" Kamiya added.

The connection between Léon: The Professional and Leon S. Kennedy seemed obvious to fans for years. Beyond the matching names between Jean Reno's character and the survival horror protagonist, Resident Evil has featured a "Professional" difficulty setting for years.

Then there's the Matilda handgun Leon uses, which fans assumed referenced Mathilda, the character Natalie Portman played in the film. Kamiya shot that one down though—he didn't name the gun. Someone else at Capcom added it after he left.

Fans reacted immediately to the revelation, ending speculation that started with the original sequel's 1998 release. Kamiya said the reaction caught him off guard, joking that he's surprised he hadn't mentioned the connections to Léon: The Professional because it wasn't something he intentionally tried to hide.

Kamiya directed Resident Evil 2 before going on to carve out a stylish new direction for action gaming with the original Devil May Cry. He later led celebrated classics like Okami and Viewtiful Joe before leaving Capcom to co-found PlatinumGames, which produced games like Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, the Wonderful 101, and more. After leaving PlatinumGames in 2023, he started his new studio, Clovers, which is helping Capcom develop Okami 2.

Kamiya's work on Resident Evil still resonates today. The massively popular Resident Evil 2 remake hit in early 2019, and Leon remains a gaming icon thanks to titles like the Resident Evil 4 remake from 2023 and Resident Evil Requiem, which launched this past February.