Prime universe
(Capcom's primary storyline)
Albert Wesker &amp;. Alex Wesker

Alex and Albert were two of the project's participants.

"Spencer: ...a new superior breed of humans, given birth by the Progenitor virus. The Wesker children were entrusted with endless potential. Of them, only one survived. You.
Albert Wesker: Are you saying I was manufactured?

Project W was a eugenics project pioneered by Oswell E. Spencer which intended to develop an advanced race of human beings. The project was named after the first director of the project, Dr. Wesker and all successful child candidates are renamed with this surname. This was one of the most significant viral operations centering around the Progenitor virus. This project was also highly classified to the extent that it was not even included among the Umbrella Archives or in the U.M.F.-013 computer core.[notes 1]


The origins of the project arose in the 1960s. Dr. Spencer believed the world to be corrupted by human decadency, and longed for a Utopian world of gifted intellectuals. With the Progenitor Virus, Dr. Spencer was able to realise this dream amongst those in his eugenics circle, with a virus that could create highly intelligent superhumans. The project had a number of hurdles to over-come however. Firstly, the Progenitor Virus when tested was found to present a high risk of death, and required extensive research to achieve a strain capable of doing as Ndipaya myths said. Secondly, the Spencer Foundation had no where near the resources required to fulfill this project, leading to the founding of Umbrella Pharmaceuticals as a means of raising funds, and developing bio-weaponry as a means of testing the virus for Project W. Thirdly, the Utopian vision could not be achieved if the candidates did not share Dr. Spencer's ideals. Project W solved this problem by selecting children as the candidates, who could be educated to have those ideals.[1]

During the first phase of the experiment, hundreds of children across the world were adopted, whether legitimately or otherwise, based on a criteria of their parents' contributions to mankind. All given the surname, Wesker, they were given the best education money could buy while being closely monitored by the Project W team. When they grew up, they were allowed to go out into the world, under monitoring, to take up jobs in a variety of professions. A number of these candidates were drawn to Umbrella and gained employment, including Dr. Albert Wesker and Alex Wesker.[1] Alex developed a close relationship with Spencer himself, and was allowed to know about the project, though Albert was not.

By 1998, Project W had isolated the cream of the crop, determining some thirteen of the Wesker children to be the best candidates for the next phase, infection with the virus.[1] Infection was done in various ways, either through manipulation of the candidates' friends or by taking advantage of a medical check-up. This phase saw the deaths of eleven of the final candidates, with only Albert and Alex surviving, the former with superhuman powers,[2] and the latter possessing none due to suffering from a terminal degenerative disease at the time of infection. Though Alex was confident that infecting the washouts would increase their numbers, this was not acted upon.

Though the dream of Project W should have ended with the death of Dr. Spencer in 2006, the eugenics beliefs he had instilled upon the candidates led to Albert and Alex pursuing their own dramatically different alternatives to it. Albert went on to develop the Uroboros Project, which was intended to kill everyone in the world not compatible with the virus, while Alex began the t-Phobos Project as a means of escaping her diseased body and continuing the work anew.

Known childrenEdit


  1. Oswell E. Spencer, when revealing the project to Wesker, mentioned he lost the notes for Project W in the destruction of Raccoon City, and the U.M.F.-013, and by extension, the entire archives of the Umbrella Corporation, had been evacuated shortly before the city's destruction by Sergei Vladimir, as well as copied by Albert Wesker a few years later.
  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Capcom. Resident Evil 5. (Capcom Co., Ltd.). File: Albert Wesker.
  2. Capcom. Resident Evil 5. (Capcom Co., Ltd.). File: Report on Project W - August 28, 1998.