Resident Evil: Death Island delivers the long-awaited team-up of the series’ most beloved protagonists. For the first time ever, Chris, Claire, Leon, Jill, and Rebecca are sharing the screen to join forces and take down a new threat emerging from the long-abandoned Alcatraz Island.
At a recent press screening, we sat down with stars Nicole Tompkins, Matt Mercer, and Stephanie Panisello to talk about the new movie, how they approached their roles, and find out who their all-time favorite Resident Evil characters are. The only rule was that they weren’t allowed to choose their own character. Their answers were surprising, but also unsurprisingly, nobody picked Chris.
Nicole Tompkins reprises her role as Jill Valentine after reintroducing the character in the Resident Evil 3 remake. She also voices Daniela Dimitrescu and Elena Lupu in Resident Evil Village, so she has a lot of experience playing both heroes and villains in the world of Resident Evil. As a huge fan of the games, her favorite characters are the ones whose stories ended too soon:
“I loved playing RE2 Remake, I loved watching all of the characters in that, but I also want to throw a shoutout to Marvin and some of these side characters that come in and are really strong moral moments. There’s a lot of side characters that’d I’d be like ‘That’s really interesting to me!’ Kendo the gun shop owner, I love his whole story. I’m really invested in the small people sometimes too.”
Matt Mercer returns as Leon S. Kennedy in Death Island. His last turn as Leon was in 2015’s Resident Evil: Vendetta, after which the role was taken over by Nick Apostolides for the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 4, as well as the Netflix series Infinite Darkness. Mercer says he was surprised to get another opportunity to play Leon after making peace with retiring from the role, but that sharing the role alongside Apostolides for a moment “has been tremendous and means a lot to [him].” Here’s what he had to say about his favorite characters:
“Growing up with Resident Evil, during the late ‘90s-early 2000s Matrix-centric era to not pay homage to the ridiculousness of Albert Wesker: the ‘I Wear My Sunglasses At Night’ bad guy. It’s so absurdly delicious, the archetype that he was. I have a soft spot in my heart for Wesker, most definitely.
“And then, playfully, there’s something about Resident Evil 1 Barry. There’s just something about the slightly confused dad wandering around through the mansion energy that he brought to that game that I can’t help but still to this day look back on fondly.”
Of the three, Stephanie Panisello has had the most consistent run with her character. She played Claire Redfield in the remake of Resident Evil 2, then returned for Infinite Darkness in 2021. Now she’s back as Claire in Death Island. “It’s been nice to be able to have her origin and see how she’s growing throughout all of it,” Panisello says. “It’s been a lot of fun to be able to do that.” Like Tompkins, Panisello has a fondness for unsung heroes in Resident Evil, but she also loves to hate (or hates to love) Leon.
“I actually love Marvin’s character. I love Marvin, I never kill Marvin. Of all the times I’ve ever played, I never kill Marvin, he will never die. I will not allow it, I have a rule. I just love his character so, so, so much. It would be interesting to see other characters and see where their timelines went too, but I think he’s my favorite. I would have loved to understand more [about him]. It’s funny because there isn’t a ton of scenes, but there’s enough to realize that Marvin absolutely cares about you and truly does his best to make it all work out.
“I have this love/hate with Leon. Love him as a bro, but then you’re like, ‘Why do you have to keep choosing these women that don’t really love ya?’ I find it so funny, but I do love Leon too. There’s just something super fun about Leon, he takes everything very seriously. Even the one-liners are serious. They’re genuine. There’s something about Leon I like to poke at because he’s so badass but it’s fun to laugh at him.”
Check out the full interview with the cast here, then watch our interview with the filmmakers, where they explain why Jill Valentine hasn’t aged since Resident Evil 3. Death Island is available on Blu-Ray, 4k Steelbook, Digital, and DVD July 25.