Edward Dewey went through considerable changes in the series despite his minor role in the franchise. In the original Resident Evil, Dewey lacked a CG model and only existed in the live-action opening in the form of a dismembered hand. Due to this small role, mentions of him were absent in the Japanese manual altogether, and he is not named in-game. A mention of him did appear in the English manual, which created its own backstories for the characters, and he was confirmed to exist in 1997's Inside of BIO-HAZARD. This entry reads: "Edward Dewey (Bravo Team): His right hand severed from the wrist was found in the Arklay Mountains. The rest of his remains is still uncovered, and the cause of death was deemed to be undeterminable."[1]
Edward with both of his hands intact in the N64 demo
Dewey's first CG appearance was in the ultimately unreleased Nintendo 64 prototype of Resident Evil 0, where he was to be killed off soon after crashing through a window in the Ecliptic Express. Unlike the original game's depiction, his hand is bloodied but is not severed.[2][3] The GameCube version was similar, though paid no particular detail on his hands. In the GCN version he instead passes out and appears later as a Zombie.
Edward Dewey's surname comes from an unused character proposed for the original Resident Evil, simply named Dewey. In contrast to Edward, who is a muscular Caucasian, the original Dewey was a thin African-American, modeled after actor Eddie Murphy, who was designed to serve as the game's comic relief.
Sources[]
↑translated from Japanese from Inside of Bio Hazard, p. 121, Famitsu, 1997.
