Ethan Winters

Ethan Winters is a character in Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan), a survival horror video game series created by the Japanese company Capcom. Ethan was introduced as one of the playable characters in the 2017 video game Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, in which he is depicted as an ordinary civilian searching for his missing wife within a ruined estate in Louisiana. He returned in the 2021 sequel Resident Evil Village, where he searches for his kidnapped daughter in a mysterious European village.

Originally designed as an unseen "everyman" protagonist to represent the player's viewpoint, the character's story was expanded for his return in Village. He is voiced by Hidenobu Kiuchi in Japanese and Todd Soley in English. Ethan has received a mixed reception from video game publications. Several journalists have praised his relatability, while others have criticized him for a lack of emotional range and character development.

In Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017), players take Ethan's viewpoint from a first-person perspective. While the Resident Evil series had become more action-oriented in some releases, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard was designed as a return to survival elements with limited resources. According to Morimasa Sato, who was a writer for Resident Evil 7 and the director of Resident Evil Village (2021), the development team initially thought of Ethan as merely "a camera for the player" and "transparent", while scriptwriter Antony Johnston said "It's a balancing act between giving Ethan his own personality, but also helping the player imagine that it could be them, reacting in the same way."

Towards the end of development for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, its developers began planning for the next mainline Resident Evil game. The developers decided to make it a direct continuation of Resident Evil 7 and Ethan's story arc, having developed an attachment to him and seeing potential in his character. Producer Peter Fabiano stated that the team wanted players to experience Village from Ethan's perspective. Sato described "Village" as the story of Ethan and "the entirety of who he is."

Ethan's face is never shown within the gameplay for Resident Evil 7 or Resident Evil Village due to players controlling Ethan from a first-person perspective. However, the team did create facial features for his character model, which can be seen by other artists and modders. An unused version of Ethan's character model, hidden within the game's assets, has fully developed facial features. In the expansion "Shadows of Rose" for Resident Evil Village, Ethan appears in a third-person mode and despite attempts to obscure his face, players could see it by performing certain actions.

Ethan was voiced by American actor Todd Soley for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil Village and by Hidenobu Kiuchi in the Japanese versions of the games. Ethan's appearance was based on Tunisian model Yaya Chamki.

Ethan first appears in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017), where he searches in Louisiana for his wife, Mia, after her abduction by the Baker family. After he finds Mia, they attempt to flee, but she abruptly becomes violent and dismembers Ethan's hand with a chainsaw. He is captured by Jack Baker and forced to join a family dinner, after which he escapes and kills Jack and his wife Marguerite. Ethan later discovers that the Baker family has been under the control of the game's main antagonist, Eveline, a powerful genetically engineered bio-weapon. Later, he crafts a necrotoxin then stabs it into Eveline before she mutates into a giant monster. Ethan finally destroys Eveline with assistance from a paramilitary company led by Chris Redfield. Ethan and Mia then escape the plantation.

Ethan returns in Resident Evil Village (2021) as its central character. Three years after the events of the previous game, Ethan and Mia are living in Europe with their newborn daughter, Rosemary. Chris Redfield storms the house suddenly and kills Mia while taking Ethan and Rosemary into custody. While Ethan and Rosemary are being transported in a van, a mysterious entity crashes it just outside the village. Ethan ends up in a remote village, where he looks for his daughter. Ethan soon discovers that the person shot was not Mia, but a disguised cult leader known as Mother Miranda. Miranda appears and kills Ethan after he beats the village's four Lords. She tells him that she intends to use Rosemary to bring back her daughter, Eva, who died from the Spanish flu . Later, Ethan discovers that he had died during his initial meeting with Jack Baker in Resident Evil 7, but the mold—a kind of fungus used to create humanoid creatures—had given him the capacity to regenerate. After regaining consciousness, Ethan kills Miranda and saves his daughter. As Ethan's body begins to deteriorate, he sacrifices himself and gives Rosemary to Chris, who makes it to a helicopter before Ethan detonates a bomb to destroy the village.