Albert Wesker

Albert Wesker is a character in Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan), a survival horror video game series created by the Japanese company Capcom. He was first introduced in the original Resident Evil (1996) as the captain of the headquarters Raccoon Police Department's Special Tactics And Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) unit. Wesker has been one of the series' main antagonists as a member of the pharmaceutical conglomerate Umbrella Corporation, the primary antagonistic faction, manipulating story events behind-the-scenes. To further his own plans, Wesker betrays his allies, fakes his death, gains superhuman abilities, and works with both Umbrella's mysterious rival company and their successors in the field of biological weapons development until his ultimate defeat by Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar in Resident Evil 5 (2009).

Wesker was conceptualized by writer Kenichi Iwao, who envisioned Wesker as an arrogant, intelligent, and unsympathetic character. Wesker is presented as a virologist focused on advancing human evolution, and later becomes a bio-terrorist obsessed with eradicating humanity. Wesker possesses superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and regeneration, and he mutates into a more powerful form in Resident Evil 5.

Wesker appears in several Resident Evil games, novelizations, and films and has also appeared in other game franchises, including Marvel vs. Capcom, Teppen, and Dead by Daylight. Several actors have portrayed Wesker, including Jason O'Mara, Shawn Roberts, Tom Hopper, and Lance Reddick in the live-action Resident Evil series. Wesker has received mostly positive reviews from video game publications, with critics praising him for being one of the most memorable video game villains, particularly his death, but criticized for appearing as a one-dimensional and stereotypical villain.