Jill Valentine is starring in the remake of Resident Evil 3, and the model who provides Jill's new face would love to return for future entries in the series.
Jill Valentine debuted as one of the two playable characters in the original Resident Evil, but this was back during the 32-bit era, when characters resembled blocky polygons, though Jill was played by a real actress called Inezh during the live-action sequences of the game. The original Resident Evil was remade for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002 and Jill used the likeness of Canadian model Julia Voth, whose likeness would also be used in later Resident Evil titles.
The remake of Resident Evil 3 will use a new real life likeness for Jill's face, with Russian model Sasha Zotova providing her face to the role. Zotova recently spoke to Fanatical about her experiences working on Resident Evil 3 and she has expressed a desire to return in future Resident Evil games.
The Resident Evil 3 Remake is no doubt going to be a big hit, so could we see you returning as Jill Valentine in future games? Sasha: "I would love to return for future RE games as Jill. It is a pleasure for me to work with Capcom."
Zotova was unable to reveal if she just provided her likeness to Jill Valentine, or whether she actually did any of the motion-capture work for Resident Evil 3. She also expressed her surprise at seeing a video game character running around with her face, especially when that character is being pursued by a creature like Nemesis.
The success of the Resident Evil 2 remake could potentially lead to more of the action/survival horror style of Resident Evil games in the future, rather than the first-person horror that was used for Resident Evil 7. It's possible that we could see remakes of other Resident Evil games were Jill appears (like Resident Evil 5) or even see new entries set during the uncovered periods from the timeline of the series, with possible Resident Evil 3.5 style games that chronicle the original downfall of the Umbrella Corporation. So it's possible that Zotova could return in future Resident Evil games.
Resident Evil 3 will be released for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on April 3, 2020.
Source: Fanatical, Sasha Zotova/Instagram