Resident Evil Villageis a few weeks away from release, but it seems Capcom already has plans in place for the next main series entry in the long-running survival-horror franchise. According to a new rumor, Capcom already has the story forResident Evil 9planned, and as it so happens, it will apparently serve as the conclusion to the trilogy of games that started with2017’sResident Evil 7.

This is according to AestheticGamer aka Dusk Golem, who has accurately leakedResident Evilnews in the past. Without spoiling anything, AestheticGamer teased that story events fromResident Evil 7will make more sense after players go throughResident Evil Village, and that the story inResident Evil 9will be connected to the events ofVillage. AestheticGamer also suggested that Capcom will be breaking away from having an overarching narrative from story to the next with futureResident Evilgames.

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AestheticGamer alluded to Capcom’s desire to stop doing numberedResident Evilgames, theorizing that this is so the developers can tell self-contained stories instead of planning out a plot across multiple games. In some ways, this would be quite the departure from series norms, but in other ways, this would not be all that different to how Capcom has handled someResident Evilstoriesto begin with.

For example,Resident Evil 4’s story is largely disconnected from the other games in the series. While it stars Leon S. Kennedy and has some appearances byAda Wong, most of it doesn’t really have anything to do with the events in otherResident Evilgames. Similarly,Resident Evil 7’s story could’ve been self-contained, as it doesn’t have much to do with other games in the series until the very end.

Resident Evil 7’s ending ties the game to previous entries in the franchise by having longtime protagonist Chris Redfield show up, along with a new corporation called Blue Umbrella that seems to be dedicated to fighting bioterrorism.Chris Redfield will also play a major role inResident Evil Village, though what exactly he will be doing in the game is still mostly a mystery at the time of this writing.

In the meantime, it will be interesting to see if Ethan Winters is still the protagonist inResident Evil 9. Part of the reason whyEthan Winters is the protagonist inResident Evil Villageis because the developers wanted to flesh him out more and expand on his character since he didn’t get much development inResident Evil 7. It’s unclear if Winters is going to get out ofResident Evil Villagealive, but if so, it seems his trilogy will be coming to an end withResident Evil 9(assuming AestheticGamer’s information is correct, that is).

Resident Evil 9has not been announced at the time of this writing.