Following prior performances for the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4, actor Nick Apostolides provides the voice and motion capture for Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil Requiem. It’s a continuation for the character’s legacy after he was first brought to life in 1998 by voice actor Paul Haddad in the original version of Resident Evil 2. Sadly, Haddad passed away in 2020, following the release of the RE2 remake in 2019.
In a new interview with Horror Geek Life, Apostolides paid tribute to Haddad. Apostolides shared the story of how Haddad had reached out to him with an offer to help pass the torch from one Leon Kennedy to another. Haddad was remembered as being the “nicest, most genuine guy” who still has the hearts of so many fans of the franchise around the world.
“Yes, Paul reached out to me,” Apostolides said. “He reached out, I believe on Facebook, shortly after I was announced. He just gave me the nicest congratulatory message. He said if he ever wanted to chat, I’d be up for it. He gave me his phone number and we started chatting.”
Apostolides continued, “We had quite a few nice phone calls. He just wanted to say, ‘I’m proud of you. I’m happy to pass the torch on. I’m happy to see what you do with this character moving forward.’ He was just the nicest, most genuine guy. That goes to show why his version of Leon just shined. He had the hearts of so many fans. He still does. It’s just because of who he was.”
Haddad only provided voices for one other video after Resident Evil 2, and it happened two decades later. He voiced a character in the 2019 game Daymare: 1998, which was directly influenced by Resident Evil 2 and other survival horror games of the era. This turned out to be Haddad’s final role. He’d previously done voiceover work for a variety of TV shows, including Uncle Arthur in Babar, Quicksilver in X-Men: The Animated Series, and the titular sea beast in the animated Free Willy series.
RELATED: Maika Monroe Stars in ‘Resident Evil Requiem’ Short Film
Thanks in part to Haddad’s work, Leon Kennedy’s legacy lives on with the character still serving as among the most popular of the Resident Evil franchise. He is now one of two playable characters in the newest installment, Resident Evil Requiem, which sold over five million copies within its first week of release, setting a new record for the video games. Given Apostolides’ assessment of Haddad, it’s fair to believe that he’d be very proud.
Resident Evil Requiem is out now for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2.
