For Pride 2021, we get to add Tyrone Henry to the list of canonically gay characters. This Resident Evil: Resistance survivor has just been confirmed as canonically gay by game director Al Yang over on Twitter.
For those who haven't played the game (and judging by the SteamCharts player count, that's pretty much most of you), Resident Evil Resistance came out at the same time as Resident Evil 3 as an asymmetrical online multiplayer survival game. Four players take on the roles of survivors while one player takes on the role of the Mastermind, setting traps, enemies, and other deadly implements in an attempt to kill all the survivors. The survivors have to escape Umbrella's insane Nest2 facility by avoiding being eaten by various monsters.
Tyrone Henry is one such survivor. He's a former Racoon City firefighter who gets abducted and has to kick his way through hordes of zombies to freedom. Oh, and he's also gay.
That's according to Yang's Twitter thread where he wished everyone a happy Pride but also gave us insight into the character creation process for Resident Evil: Resistance.
"It's basically impossible to tell, but the character setting for Tyrone is that he is gay," wrote Yang, "but the goal was to write this without it becoming the sole basis of his character."
Yang is right in saying there's basically nothing in Resident Evil: Resistance that would clue you into Tyrone's sexuality. Everyone is so busy running for their lives that it didn't make sense to throw in a voice line confirming his orientation, although Yang did write lines for just that purpose.
“In the end even though we wrote a bunch of lines reflecting this for Tyrone, they stood out and didn't feel natural as part of his dialogue rotation,” Yang admits.
It’s nice to have a character come out of the closet for Pride, but it would’ve been nicer if a tiny facet of the game might have hinted at Tyrone being gay in the first place. Representation is important, and a Twitter explanation after the fact just doesn’t have the same sort of impact.
But hey, there are plenty of other ways to celebrate your Pride, including a free badge in Apex Legends, free icons in Knockout City, and a whole free game in Tell Me Why, which the developers are giving away all month long.