While neither Barry Burton nor Rebecca Chambers appear in Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City, here are their roles from an early screenplay draft explained. While the Milla Jovovich-fronted Resident Evil movies may have been box-office successes, they tended to be lambasted by critics and fans of the games. Those entries put a firm focus on action and outlandish setpieces over horror, and 2021 reboot Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City was a valiant attempt to rework the franchise on the big screen.
Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City adapted the first two games, placing the Spencer Mansion raid and the fall of Raccoon City on the same night. While this meant classic characters like Chris and Claire Redfield, Jill Valentine, Leon Kennedy and many more appeared, the cluttered narrative often meant they had little to do. The movie's focus on horror was a welcome change, but overall, Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City was let down by cliched characters and dialogue, in addition to its unfocused storyline.
Director Johannes Roberts later stated in interviews for Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City that fan favorite Barry Burton was being saved for a potential sequel. In the original 1996 Resident Evil game, both Barry and S.T.A.R.S rookie Rebecca Chambers served as key supporting players, but they are nowhere to be found in the horror video game adaptation Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City. That wasn't always the case, as an earlier draft by Roberts included them both - and their fates may have left fans very unhappy.
In this early Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City script, Rebecca is one of the R.P.D members introduced during the diner scene with Leon. Instead of introducing Jill and Wesker as the final film does, it's Rebecca who talks with Leon and mentions she and some other officers are heading out to investigate reports of attacks at the old Spencer Mansion. Later, during the briefing scene, Barry Burton is introduced as the leader of the team, answering a distress call left by Rebecca at the mansion.
This version of Barry is depicted as somewhat dim-witted and incompetent, however, and lacks his famous magnum revolver from the games. Barry essentially serves the role that Richard Aiken took in the final version of Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City - which should have been two movies - and that includes his fate. In the movie's recreation of the iconic turn-around zombie moment from the first Resident Evil game, it's revealed that the creature is actually chewing on a dying Rebecca. Chris and Barry are left stunned by this reveal and shoot down the zombie when it advances on them.
Chris comforts Rebecca before she dies while the "turn around" zombie raises again and attacks Barry before he has a chance to respond, bitting a huge chunk out of flesh from his neck. Chris finally kills the zombie and sees Barry lying dead in a pool of gore. This Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City (which sets up a sequel) moment likely would have shocked fans by killing off Barry and Rebecca so abruptly. This might have set up the threat the zombies pose, but given how little development they get - and Barry's change from dependable sidekick to cowardly leader - might have just angered franchise devotees instead. Ultimately, Roberts wisely dropped both characters, likely deciding there just wasn't room for them and they might be better served in a potential Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City sequel.