Current Ages of Mainline Characters in 2020*
- Natalia Korda/Burton (2001) - 19
- Zoe Baker (1994) - 26
- Jake Muller (1992) - 28
- Moira Burton (1991) - 29
- Helena Harper (1989) - 31
- Sheva Alomar (1986) - 34
- Sherry Birkin (1986) - 34
- Mia Winters (1985) - 35
- Ethan Winters (1984) - 36
- Ashley Graham (1984) - 36
- Rebecca Chambers (1980) - 40
- Claire Redfield (1979) - 41
- Carlos Olivera (1977) - 43
- Leon S. Kennedy (1977) - 43
- Jill Valentinte (1974) - 46
- Ada Wong (1974) - 46
- Josh Stone (1974) - 46
- Chris Redfield (1973) - 47
- Billy Cohen (1972) - 48
- Joe Baker (Unknown but older than Jack) - 59+
- Barry Burton (1960) - 60
First off I want to say there's nothing wrong with older characters in games. It's actually something I welcome and would love to see more of. I more wanted to bring up the point that RE characters age in real-time and thus far outside of spinoffs/Remakes, mainline RE titles take place the year they release (give or take). Thus if RE9 isn't out until say 2025, every character here has just aged 5 years.
As I said before having older characters isn't an issue, but I think it's odd that with the unique take on character aging compared to other franchises. There hasn't been as much done in laying seeds to new characters to take over for others. There has definitely been a lot of RE characters in what's about to be 25 years of the franchise. But a lot of new character potential seems to be brought up and then dropped a game later (with some random returns happening here and there).
So depending on how things go in the next few years. It seems the series is will either have to push toward new characters or reboot in some form (Which I don't personally see happening). As the only other option is to start ditching the real-world aging on these stories (Which could happen, just it hasn't yet despite multiple oppurtunities to do so).
My personal hope is the series starts to go back to forgotten characters like Sheva, Jake, and Moira. Allowing them to grow more with the older cast while also building up ideas for new characters to flourish as the series goes on. Rather than introducing and then killing/forgetting about them when the next game comes around.
I know a few people will say "Who cares about Characters/Story in RE?" but i'd argue that element is a large reason why the series has managed to stay around so long regardless of what Genre these games are. As there's always some sort of connection for players to have to the series outside just "They're horror games" which I feel played a large part in so many horror franchises falling off while RE stayed relevant (along with the genre changes as well).
