The name Albert Wesker has become almost eponymous with Resident Evil, with the franchise now covering movies and tv series as well as the famed survival horror games. Wesker debuted with the very first Resident Evil game, featuring him in RPD uniform with the slicked-back blond hair and shades that many fans now associate with his character.
With all the different adaptations looking to capture the story and characters of Resident Evil with varying levels of success, each had its own unique variant on the series' most infamous villain, making minor changes to his personality, his lore, and even giving his looks drastic makeovers.
9 Resident Evil 0
Not so much Wesker as just a skin, Resident Evil 0 features a "Wesker mode," in which playable character Billy Coen is replaced by Wesker. If the player completed the campaign on any difficulty, they unlock this mode, which has minimal deviations from the base game.
The enemies, bosses, puzzles, and events remain the same. The only real changes Wesker mode brings are different dialogue when commanding teammate Rebecca and a new in-game outfit for Rebecca so she better matches Wesker. Despite these changes, Rebecca will still refer to him as Billy, reminding the player this mode is nothing more than a skin.
8 Resident Evil 4: Mercenaries
Mercenaries is the optional mini-game players can unlock by completing the main game on any difficulty. It is a fun enough mini-game in which the player must take down as many opponents as possible in a limited amount of time before an evacuation helicopter comes to extract the player to safety.
Mercenaries features characters Leon Kennedy, Ada Wong, and Jack Krauser from Resident Evil 4, as well as famous antagonists Hunk and Wesker, though the latter can only be unlocked by achieving a four-star rating on Water World Island, which is no small feat. Wesker is one of the most powerful characters with more health and some of the most powerful melee abilities. Though being just a mini-game with no story attached to it, there isn't really much to Wesker's character other than stats, making this version of him one of the most lifeless.
7 Welcome To Raccoon City
Welcome to Raccoon City proved a major disappointment to most fans with its questionable casting choices, sloppy writing, poor pacing, and cramming two of the game's stories into one feature film run time. One such change was the character of Wesker.
While Tom Hopper is a good enough actor, even the best actor cannot save a mediocre script. Wesker is written as more like a buddy cop alongside Jill Valentine, seeing the two cracking jokes and taking jabs at each other, which certainly is a bold new direction to take their relationship, and seemed to fan the flames of a flat and disinteresting love triangle involving Chris Redfield. Wesker is even seen having his chops busted by Chief Irons, which is a huge disservice to his character and reputation that casts its shadows over the entire franchise.
6 Resident Evil (Netflix)
Netflix's attempt at an adaptation was not successful, to say the least. From the teenage angst and drama to its predictable twists, and its most heinous crime: undoing the terrifying reputation of Albert Wesker. Many fans were skeptical at Netflix's choice to cast Lance Riddick as the blond, shade-wearing super-villain, especially considering it's set after the events of Resident Evil 5, where he met his demise, but most watched with ambivalence, only to be horrified to see Wesker reduced to a single dad settling down with his two teen daughters.
Though the series later explains this as Wesker having cloned himself, giving fans a hilarious glimpse of a Wesker doing his best Blade cosplay, and the plotline that introduced Burt to the fold, the series still performed so poorly that plans for a second season were almost immediately axed, despite the finale setting up future events.
5 Resident Evil (Paul W.S. Anderson)
Paul W.S. Anderson's attempt at an adaptation was met with mixed reviews, some praising it as a fun action movie, others decrying it as a schlocky mess, much of the ire directed at the movie's main character Alice, who Anderson gave his wife Milla Jovovich the role for.
The famed antagonist Wesker does not appear until the third movie, Extinction, with the most faithful screen adaptation of Wesker so far. Donning the signature apparel as seen from Resident Evil 5 and the slicked-back hair, Wesker was instantly recognizable to any fans who watched the movie. But while his appearance was near perfect, often Wesker's performance fell flat, with line delivery lacking any emotion. While this can be pinned down to the character's lack of emotion, it is not displaying any skillful acting, and in other performances, such as that of Resident Evil 5, there was still plenty of effort put into the voice acting.
4 Resident Evil
The game that started it all also brought us the very first version of Wesker, captain of STARS as far as his team was aware. In the first Resident Evil, Wesker still has the signature hair and shades but dresses in a police uniform as befitting an RPD officer. This look can be viewed almost as equally iconic, as it was the first outfit donned by Wesker, and is even available to purchase as an alternate costume in Dead by Daylight.
Little did the RPD know, Wesker had already worked as a senior researcher for the T-Virus as early as 1978 when Wesker was only 18 years old. His taking his team to the Spencer Mansion was all part of a test he engineered, with only Barry aware of his duplicitous nature after threatening the safety of his family. This shows the depths of his cold and calculating nature, and the lengths he will go to for his mission.
3 Resident Evil: Code Veronica
Wesker comes back from the dead in Code Veronica, bringing with him ulterior motives as always. Equipped with superhuman strength and speed, he proves a challenge to the Redfield siblings, demonstrating his capabilities to kill Claire and Chris with ease, both only surviving their encounters due to luck.
Now partnered with H.C.F (Hive/Host Capture Force), Wesker seeks to capture Alexia Ashford, attacking Rockfort Island in order to achieve his goal. Code Veronica shows a calculating Wesker who won't even allow his thirst for revenge to interfere with his mission.
2 Dead By Daylight
The second Resident Evil DLC to be added to Dead by Daylight included survivors Ada Wong and Rebecca Chambers, and killer Albert Wesker known as the Mastermind. The version they used was the one from Resident Evil 5, with the Uroboros virus as his unique killer power.
With Uroboros, Wesker can charge forward with terrifying speed, and whatever survivor he makes contact with becomes infected with the virus, making them further susceptible to his power. His teachable perks increase his vault speed, reveal survivors' auras while carrying a downed survivor, and make all injured survivors broken in the end game collapse. The perks make him adept at chasing down and finishing off survivors with terrifying ease, crowning this Wesker as one of the most terrifying.
1 Resident Evil 5
Wesker as seen in Resident Evil 5 is unmatched in terms of panache, style, and wit. This installment in the franchise saw a clear deviation from Capcom's usual approach to the Resident Evil franchise, with a bigger focus on action-packed gameplay rather than the eerie, slow-paced survival horror most fans were familiar with. As such, this title, and more so Resident Evil 6, proved divisive among fans, but it did deliver a phenomenal villain.
With the power of Uroboros at his fingertips and a god complex, Wesker is intent on unleashing it upon the world, the plans which he shares in the fashion of a villain from a Saturday morning children's cartoon. His performance is ridiculous but in the best way possible. With him matching or even overshadowing Chris in terms of one-liners in their back and forth, and his over-the-top monologues, it's difficult not to root for him to succeed, and being forced to kill him at the game's climax is a shame. But having come back from the dead once, fans can still hope to see Wesker return.