Resident Evil Village is a few weeks away from release, but it seems Capcom already has plans in place for the next main series entry in the long-running survival-horror franchise. According to a new rumor, Capcom already has the story for Resident Evil 9 planned, and as it so happens, it will apparently serve as the conclusion to the trilogy of games that started with 2017's Resident Evil 7.
This is according to AestheticGamer aka Dusk Golem, who has accurately leaked Resident Evil news in the past. Without spoiling anything, AestheticGamer teased that story events from Resident Evil 7 will make more sense after players go through Resident Evil Village, and that the story in Resident Evil 9 will be connected to the events of Village. AestheticGamer also suggested that Capcom will be breaking away from having an overarching narrative from story to the next with future Resident Evil games.
AestheticGamer alluded to Capcom's desire to stop doing numbered Resident Evil games, theorizing that this is so the developers can tell self-contained stories instead of planning out a plot across multiple games. In some ways, this would be quite the departure from series norms, but in other ways, this would not be all that different to how Capcom has handled some Resident Evil stories to begin with.
For example, Resident Evil 4's story is largely disconnected from the other games in the series. While it stars Leon S. Kennedy and has some appearances by Ada Wong, most of it doesn't really have anything to do with the events in other Resident Evil games. Similarly, Resident Evil 7's story could've been self-contained, as it doesn't have much to do with other games in the series until the very end.
Resident Evil 7's ending ties the game to previous entries in the franchise by having longtime protagonist Chris Redfield show up, along with a new corporation called Blue Umbrella that seems to be dedicated to fighting bioterrorism. Chris Redfield will also play a major role in Resident Evil Village, though what exactly he will be doing in the game is still mostly a mystery at the time of this writing.
In the meantime, it will be interesting to see if Ethan Winters is still the protagonist in Resident Evil 9. Part of the reason why Ethan Winters is the protagonist in Resident Evil Village is because the developers wanted to flesh him out more and expand on his character since he didn't get much development in Resident Evil 7. It's unclear if Winters is going to get out of Resident Evil Village alive, but if so, it seems his trilogy will be coming to an end with Resident Evil 9 (assuming AestheticGamer's information is correct, that is).
Resident Evil 9 has not been announced at the time of this writing.