Fans identify Kyle MacLachlan as man in Jill Valentine's RE2 photo

Players who have puzzled over the small photograph on Jill Valentine’s desk in the original 1998 Resident Evil 2 may finally have an answer: the man appears to be actor Kyle MacLachlan. A Resident Evil fan known as Morio posted on X a match to an early‑'90s image from Japan's Roadshow magazine that lines up with the in‑game portrait.

When first released, the game offered only a few pixels and the note, "It's a picture of a young man. There's a good chance it's her boyfriend…", leaving the figure's identity a long‑running curiosity. Morio, upon sharing the discovery, wrote: "Alright, that's it then. The guy from Jill's desk is Kyle MacLachlan. Years of searching finally over." They also found that a similar magazine photo of Winona Ryder was used for Barry Burton's daughter.

The Resident Evil 2 Remake did not carry over the photo of MacLachlan; the remake replaces the desk picture with a photograph of a dog rather than a person.

Japan

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