Capcom appears to have deflated a popular Resident Evil 7 fan theory

Resident Evil 7 is getting an upcoming free expansion, named Not a Hero, which stars series legend Chris Redfield - but fans had been speculating all was not what it seemed.

Some fans doubted whether the character being presented as Chris Redfield was indeed the returning star - not least, because his character design was very different.

However, a new blog post from Capcom appears to confirm the Chris Redfield we'll be playing as is indeed really him - bursting a growing, popular Resident Evil fan theory which actually made a lot of sense.

Apart from the change in character design, fans had real reason to believe Chris was not who he seemed. These reasons involve spoilers for Resident Evil 7 itself. Fair warning: we'll get into them just below.

There may be spoilers ahead:

Chris pops up first at the end of Resident Evil 7, arriving in a helicopter with Umbrella's logo attached. It appears Chris is working with Umbrella, the series' bad guys - a complete U-turn of allegiance.

So, fans had speculated, this Chris was actually someone else. Someone whose face had barely been glimpsed in the series to date - the masked Umbrella operative Hunk. There were also whispers that Resident Evil Revelations, worked on by Resident Evil 7's director, once featured this plotline - of a character suddenly being revealed as Hunk - before it ended up being cut.

But Capcom has now addressed the changed design for Chris' character model in a fresh blog post - and it seems the alteration is just that: a simple decision to change his design.

"This time, each character is made on the premise of photo realistic depiction, and Chris Redfield which appears in "Not A Hero" (DLC scheduled for free delivery this spring) also receives a pretty impressive impression," Resident Evil 7 director Koushi Nakanishi wrote.

Resi 6's Chris model was just not suitable for Resi 7's game engine or aesthetic, Nakanishi continued:

"Although it is fairly realistic impression, even if it mixes with the character of "7", it seems that a sense of incongruity will come out."

We'll just have to play Not a Hero when it is released and discover Chris' new machinations ourselves.