What Happened to Leon After Resident Evil 2?

After Resident Evil 2, Leon S. Kennedy was picked up by US forces with Sherry Birkin, the girl he and Claire Redfield had got out of Raccoon City, and was recruited into government service. The deal was simple: he would work for them, and Sherry would be protected. He trained as a special agent, and six years later, in Resident Evil 4, he was sent to Spain to rescue the President's daughter. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis; Resident Evil 6; Resident Evil 4 (2005))

How Resident Evil 2 ends#

In the 1998 game Leon, Claire and Sherry escape on the train beneath Umbrella's lab as it self-destructs, after one last fight with the mutated William Birkin. Claire gives Sherry the vaccine that stops the G-Virus taking her over. The 2019 remake ends the same way in outline: the three of them walk out of the tunnel at dawn, alive. (Resident Evil 2 (1998); Resident Evil 2 (2019))

Raccoon City didn't last much longer. Within days the US government destroyed it to wipe out the outbreak, which Resident Evil 3 shows from Jill Valentine's side. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)

Custody and the deal#

Claire left to keep searching for her brother, Chris Redfield. Leon stayed with Sherry, and US forces took them both into custody. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis has an epilogue file showing Leon facing a government man, who tells him Sherry knows too much but that Leon has value, and offers a deal. Resident Evil 6 explains what it was: Sherry would be held and studied because of the G-Virus in her, and Leon would be protecting her by joining a new government unit set up to fight Umbrella. He agreed. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis; Resident Evil 6)

How that recruitment worked, and who chose him, is covered in how Leon became a government agent. (Resident Evil 6)

December 1998: Claire's message#

Leon was already in his new life when Claire got into trouble. That December she broke into an Umbrella facility in Paris looking for Chris, was captured and shipped to Umbrella's prison on Rockfort Island. She got a message out to Leon, and Leon tracked Chris down and passed it on, which sends Chris to Rockfort in Resident Evil CODE: Veronica. Leon himself doesn't go. (Resident Evil CODE: Veronica)

2002: South America#

In 2002 Leon was sent to a small South American country with Jack Krauser, an Army special forces veteran, to stop drug lord Javier Hidalgo from using Umbrella bioweapons. Krauser was hurt on the mission and left the service soon after. That matters two years later, when he turns up in Spain on the other side. (Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles; Resident Evil 4 (2005))

Ada, who wasn't dead#

When Leon last saw Ada Wong in 1998, she seemed to have died in Umbrella's lab. She had survived. The Umbrella Chronicles shows her getting out of the city, and she spent the next years working for a rival of Umbrella with Albert Wesker as her contact. Leon didn't find out until she appeared in front of him in Spain. (Resident Evil 2 (1998); Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles; Resident Evil 4 (2005))

2004: Resident Evil 4#

Six years after Raccoon City, Leon was sent alone to rural Spain to find Ashley Graham, the President's daughter, after she was kidnapped by the cult Los Iluminados. In the 2023 remake's opening, Leon remembers the training and the punishing missions of those years nearly killing him. From here his story runs on through Resident Evil 6 in 2013 and Resident Evil Requiem in 2026. (Resident Evil 4 (2005); Resident Evil 4 (2023); Resident Evil 6)

Our reading, and only a reading: the six-year gap is where Leon changes most. He goes into it as a rookie who survived by luck and comes out of it the calm professional of Resident Evil 4. The games show the start and the end of that change, and leave most of the middle to the side stories. For the full arc, see Leon's page, the Resident Evil 2 story, the Resident Evil 4 story and the Resident Evil timeline. (Resident Evil 2 (1998); Resident Evil 4 (2005))