Hideki Kamiya, the director of 1998’s Resident Evil 2, has admitted that he initially didn’t want to include any characters from the original Resident Evil in the sequel, but added Claire Redfield after scenario writer Noboru Sugimura butted heads with him.
Asked on X if Rebecca Chambers, who served as Chris’ partner character in Resident Evil and a member of the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team, was set to appear in the sequel, Kamiya-san replied:
Back then, I was a selfish, shitty idiot who didn’t consider the users’ feelings at all, so when making 2, I decided on a policy of “exclude all characters from the previous game and start fresh”…In the end, that got buried in darkness as Bio 1.5, and afterward, when I joined, Mr. Sugimura got angry at me, saying “Why aren’t you including characters from the previous game!”, and so I created Claire, Chris’s sister…
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The original version of Resident Evil 2, colloquially dubbed Resident Evil 1.5 by fans, didn’t feature any returning characters, instead featuring Leon Kennedy (who appeared in the final version) and biker college student Elza Walker. However, when Capcom scrapped this version at around 60% complete, Elza was replaced by Claire.
Claire would later go on to appear in Resident Evil CODE: Veronica and Resident Evil Revelations, while Leon obviously became one of the main poster boys for the series, having starred in Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil 6, and was recent confirmed to appear in the upcoming Resident Evil Requiem.
The cancelled Resident Evil 1.5 was quite an interesting project, as it was very different to the final version. For starters, the Raccoon Police Department was a modern building and not the converted museum from the final release, Police Chief Brian Irons wasn’t a bad guy, and players encountered new enemies such as T-Virus infected primates and a spider-man hybrid.
[Source – Hideki Kamiya on X via GamesRadar]