Wesker’s original design was meant to be black, but Capcom didn’t think the character would sell well in America.

As Resident Evil 2 is celebrating its 20th anniversary, we decided to go back and look at the origins of one of the game’s most iconic characters. The man behind this re-imagining was Capcom artist and designer Keiji Inafune. The team wanted to make a new version of the character for the remake that would be more faithful to his original design, but Inafune wanted to do more than just change his skin color. He had a bigger vision for Wesker’s redesign.

Who is Albert Wesker?

What did he look like in Resident Evil 1?

In Resident Evil 1, Wesker is a Caucasian male with brown hair and blue eyes. He wears a dark blue uniform with red trimming on his shoulders and arms as well as on his pants. His jacket has two golden buttons on each side, one over each pocket.

“What did he look like in Resident Evil 2?”

Wesker returns in Resident Evil 2 with some notable changes from his previous appearance: he now has short brown hair, wears sunglasses and has an eye patch over his right eye (a result of being shot by Barry Burton). His outfit is also different: instead of wearing a dark blue uniform with red trimming, he now wears a black long-sleeved shirt under an unbuttoned white dress shirt with black pants.