Resident Evil Village concept art reveals early plan to include fan-favourite character

Resident Evil Village was once planned to feature a fan-favourite character from the series, before the story changed direction.

This character would have popped up in disguise as a plague doctor - as you'll see in the concept art, below - before finally revealing their true identity.

(There are no spoilers for Village here, but if you'd like to play through without knowing this character doesn't appear, look away now.)

As reported by IGN, Village has a behind-the-scenes artwork gallery included in special edition versions of the game. This has revealed early concept art for Ada Wong.

Ada was set to appear at a certain point in Village to save main character Ethan, after handily having been in the area to investigate its mysterious goings on.

Ada's appearance in Village would have been another neat throwback from Village to the aesthetically-similar Resident Evil 4, in which she also appeared, skulking around a European village to investigate mysterious goings on there, too.

But Ada's story is more typically intertwined with games starring Resident Evil hunk Leon S. Kennedy (such as Resi 2, 4 and 6) - and there's plenty going on in Village already.

We last saw Ada in Resident Evil 6, all the way back in 2012, not counting her role in 2019's Resident Evil 2 remake. Maybe she'll be back properly in Resi 9?

As for Village, which is out today, Vikki found it "an entertaining if uneven slice of horror" in Eurogamer's Resident Evil village review.