
The rumoured Resident Evil Netflix series has been officially announced today, with the first confirmed details being revealed.
The show, based upon Capcom's survival-horror series of games, is set to tell a brand new story within the Resident Evil universe set across two timelines. Netflix has shared an official description for the upcoming series (thanks, IGN):
"In the first timeline, fourteen-year-old sisters Jade and Billie Wesker are moved to New Raccoon City. A manufactured, corporate town, forced on them right as adolescence is in full swing. But the more time they spend there, the more they come to realize that the town is more than it seems and their father may be concealing dark secrets. Secrets that could destroy the world.
Cut to the second timeline, well over a decade into the future: there are less than fifteen million people left on Earth. And more than six billion monsters -- people and animals infected with the T-virus. Jade, now thirty, struggles to survive in this New World, while the secrets from her past - about her sister, her father, and herself - continue to haunt her."
Netflix has also shared a tease of the first episode's script on social media.
The series will consist of eight, one-hour-long episodes in total and will be helmed by Andrew Dabb (Supernatural). Bronwen Hughes (The Walking Dead, The Journey Is the Destination) will direct the first two episodes.
No casting details have been revealed just yet, but we'd expect to hear plenty more about this over the coming months.
For now, let us know if you're excited to watch the show and which characters you hope will appear with a comment below.
[source ign.com]
Comments 99
Too bad Netflix is evil as it creates some truly horrible stuff. I can't support them.
The second timeline sounds awful.
I'd much rather see something like Arklay.
@Kalmaro such as?
@Kalmaro What? 😳
Could be interesting. Can’t be worse than the movies.
Sounds terrible.
Using storylines from the game to start would be far far better.
This just sounds like hundreds of other similar things.
Netflix, and streaming services in general, is in the same boat as cable-tv networks was a few decades ago. There was only a handful of shows on tv, so people stopped watching after a while, and in order to motivate people to keep paying their cable bills they mass produced lots of bad content.
So the core of the problem is that you can't charge enough money for a few quality shows to cover all the costs.
I just hope they don’t make the mistake of the Walking Dead, forgetting tension is key. The later episodes of the Walking Dead weren’t nearly as enjoyable since the tension wasn’t really there.
Live action or animation?
I always feel like Resident Evil is fun when you're the one in the situation, watching it in a movie is never as good.
But we'll see, maybe a series could work?
@Kreko so, one movie that people think is rubbish. Doesn't make them evil, nor does it translate to "everything they touch".
Why is it so hard for these live action Resident Evil productions to use the actual characters instead of inventing new ones?
As Nutflix have just cancelled Altered Carbon they’re not really in my good books at the moment anyway.
So wait Wesker got kids a? Why would he unleash the virus then.
Would make more sense to just turn the story of the games into an show
The second timeline sounds too overboard so far. I’m not going to act like RE has good writing or characters, they’re near consistently cliche and over the top action archetypes, but part of what makes the best games in the series work is their settings. As in more unique isolated environments that contrast with the standard world. Having it already be post apocalyptic is ringing some alarm bells. The RE movies already did that and it was a terrible. Although the movies were terrible regardless, the setting did those movies no favors
So basically they turned RE into a Post-Apo-Zombie/Monster-series. Why bother with the license then? Cannot have been cheap. I might still be good, but I'm more than sceptical now
Netflix is really producing a ton of stuff these days, and only very little of it is actually worth a damn. They have become obsessed with NEW content every week. If that means it's cheap content, fine, if that means show 2 season 1 gets made instead of show 1 season 2, that is fine too ...
Reminds me of Marvel and DC: 1st issues/volumes sell best, hence let's stick with rebooting stuff every couple issues/volumes. It's a brilliant and not at all shortsighted strategy.
@BulkSlash Also, thanks for ruining my day (well, making me aware it is ruined at least).
@AcridSkull The only people I’ve seen unequivocally hating on Netflix are either pedo defenders or ones who hate the fact they put black people and women into TV. Like any network, they make crap but it’s pointless to focus on the bad, better to look at the good stuff they’ve done.
Hope this turns out well.
@nessisonett I think this runs much deeper than that though. Afterall, they are setting industry trends all around. Some of them for the better, some of them ... definitely not. I think this balance is far more important long-term than good vs bad show. I am not sure that as things stand the balance still continues to tip in their favour here overall.
Just for instance, Netflix is hugely invested in the whole binge-watching-approach. Sideeffects: Each episode has to have a cliff hanger that leads into the next, which also means very few episodes can stand on their own. This is also a big part why they fail so miserably at creating any good sitcomes, where basically all episodes are stand-alone pieces, that loosely fit into a grander theme. Aside form BoJack, I don't think they made anything worthwhile in that regard, amazing as BoJack was/is though.
Another example: If Netflix has it's way, we are about to enter world of 10-episode-season, and shows that will be lucky to hit 4 seasons all-in-all. That basically translates to roughly 40 episodes per show, which used to be just about 2 seasons or less for major shows. In other words, the next Buffy is just about as unlikey in this world as the next Wire, OZ, Sopranos or what-have-you. Not unless it can be condensed down to 30-40ish episodes ...... each with their own cliffhanger.
As someone who loved these shows, who loves shows in general, maybe even more so than movies, this is deeply troubling. That takes nothing away from the fact, that Netflix made amazing shows like BoJack.
@Kalmaro True. A lot of their “Netflix original series” stuff is pure garbage.
@nessisonett That’s a very far reaching and terrible assumption, might want to reconsider that one.
@Kalmaro Evil?
Normally resident evil doesn’t do to well in Hollywood.
@Ralek85 I think showrunners will adapt if shorter seasons and overall runs become the new norm. They'll tighten up their scripts and stories and won't feel the need to add filler to satisfy network demands or quotas.
Personally, I enjoy shorter seasons. But that's not to say I'll stop enjoying some of my all time favorite shows that did follow the traditional network format
@Kreko they had nothing to do with Death Note, just picked it up after Warner Bros dropped it
Can't wait for two seasons and a cancellation!
@TG16_IS_BAE Notice the use of the word ‘unequivocally’. The only people with that level of burning hatred for a company like Netflix are people with a severe bone to pick. Given their documentaries focusing on certain people and the backlash towards The Witcher daring to have minorities, it’s no surprise that the ‘Netflix bad’ crowd are primarily made up of the dregs of society. Literally just look at any thread on the Internet dogpiling on Netflix.
@nessisonett gonna have to agree with you on both comments of yours, people need to accept the times have changed and get on with it. As for this series being better than the movies....wait til Mila Jovovich makes her cameo and brings in a Rathalos and Tigrex with her from up coming monster hunter movie
Dang, Capcom’s on a role!
Is this going to be live action or cartoon?
I guess the meaning of timelines is subjective or at least fluid in that it could mean a ton of things. I read the subheadline and my mind immediately switches to Legend of Zelda, Back to the Future Hell Valley type thing. This just sounds like more like 'Lost' like flashforwards. Though again, I may have my perceptions of what a timeline is or could be all wrong
A good handful of red flags if you ask me, but I suppose it can't be worse than the movies.
@Bunkerneath
Says live action in the tweet.
I read the headline joyfully, then I saw the timelines and recalled Netflix has a lot of unnecessary sex, profanity and nudity in their shows (why Castlevania?), signs of bad writing, that my interest faded.
@Kimyonaakuma the great problem with the movies in my opinion is they lacked any of the tension the games were built on. The Walking Dead is proof that a horror series can have an enormous amount of tension.
I don't know what characters to get excited about as it sounds like a strange departure. Unless Albert is their father and he moves there to join STARS....
How anyone can entertain Netflix at this point is beyond me. When blatant child sexualisation is being pushed as being ok. We know why Hollywood take such an interest in it now more than ever before
I don't think they used the term "timeline" correctly--those are just two time periods. Unless they actually mean each of these settings takes place in alternate universes.
Will never be as good as the movies. GOAT
@nessisonett 100% agree.
@Ralek85
Yeah, this is true.
When you watch slightly older stuff like Mad Men, where every episode is a finely-chiseled short story, you realize what's been lost in our binge-watching era.
Now series are built more as long movies than actual television shows. Which is nice, in part. Production values are higher and narrative threads are more fleshed-out, whereas many classic shows, which still abide by the concept of the standalone episode, often have to resolve (or, rather, rush through) minor plot points in 10 or 20 minutes (even if they have longer-running arcs in the background).
But the binge-watching style also leads to a lot of bloat, with characters, mysteries, and plots stretched way past their sell-by date, all to maintain tension and interest for the long haul. One of the cool things about Mad Men, again, is that, although it has the production values of a modern show, it's traditional enough to give you great "endings" for each episode. This doesn't lend itself to binge-watching, because you feel satisfied, as a spectator, by the end of a single 50-minute block. Yet it makes for a great overall experience, with a mix of longer and shorter narrative threads, and many micro-closures and self-contained pockets of storytelling.
@Kalmaro umm what now? 😦
Netflix could do a lot of great things.
They could keep making shows like The Umbrella Academy, The Dark Crystal AoR, Love Death Robots, or Castlevania, which are good and have actual effort put into them.
Or they could keep digging up more teenie bopper "coming of age" crap like this that rarely works well (the only instance REALLY being Stranger Things), like the Avatar remake, 13 Reasons Why, Sabrina, and now this.
@Pod Ah yeah, whoopsies
@Kreko tbh there isn’t a single live action anime movie that has been good in the history of live action anime movies. You can’t condense a 50 episode anime into a 2 hour movie.
Just learn to avoid them like the plague. It’s not just Netflix’s fault. Attack on Titan, Dragon Ball Z, Full Metal Alchemist... they are all TERRIBLE and they weren’t made by Netflix.
@Kreko no, they didn't.
@PlayedNSlayed huh? Can you point out where this is happening? Otherwise it sounds like an issue only you're seeing.
@Lord Live action according to IGN.
...I'm convinced Capcom has a prolific B-movie fetish. That is the only possible reason - aside from, well, money - that this went through.
And don't blame Netflix for this. Constantin is once again in the driver's seat here... meaning that this was gonna be terrible no matter which network picked it up.
Worst of all, doing it right isn't that difficult. Just get the guys behind A Quiet Place and adapt RE2... boom, instant hit.
@Kalmaro
Castlevania
Dark
High Score
Stranger Things
Umbrella Academy
Daredevil
Luke Cage
Devilman Crybaby
Dark
Ozark
Bojack Horseman
She Ra
Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy
Aggretsuko
Sex Education
They've made misteps but they have a lot of great stuff that you're clearly ignoring just because of that one time they messed up Death Note
Netflix has ruined Dragon's Lair, Avatar, and now Resident Evil.
Any guesses for what's next?
Edit: I typed this while on break at my job so I kinda rushed this comment. I, or anybody not involved on these projects, can offer a valid critical opinion until these projects come out but we can all express our skepticism at them.
Based upon what I have heard from the development of these pieces of content, I don't have high hopes.
@Kalmaro I don't agree. At all. I've enjoyed quite a lot of originals. But if I say that just because I've enjoyed many original productions, Netflix is the best in the world, I would be wrong. Just as you are with your generalization.
@Elvie Still going to actively hold any reservations I make about Avatar. Castlevania showed that you can have a creative team who want to tell good stories while knowing next to nothing about the source material itself. It's way too early to judge
They do have a record of putting their "rotten finger" over non-original series. That being said, I enjoyed a lot the first season of Stranger Things (2 not that much and 3 even less, unfortunately), The Witcher and Sabrina. These 3 series I intend to keep watching as long as I can use my family's account.
And I just got to know that Cobra Kai will be released on Netflix. I really hope they do not influence the direction of my favourite series hahahahaha
Edit: I was mentioning mainly live action, but Love Death Robots and Castlevania are good as well! May have to check BoJack
@TheFrenchiestFry
Is Sex Education good? First time I see someone spontaneously recommending it. Never bothered to look for any reviews, I might add.
@nessisonett yep, it's the same incels moaning about the same rubbish. Doesn't matter which company it is, the party line is; women bad, minorities bad, this isn't exactly how I wanted it to be. Boring.
@Lugazz It's probably one of the funniest shows I've seen in general. It's really well written and extremely well acted given the stuff they have the characters do in the show.
Getting invested in Netflix TV shows is a big waste of time. They will just cancel it prematurely, like Altered Carbon, The OA, etc.
Sounds great. If the production values come close to The witcher we’re in for a treat
The future storyline should feature all the actors from the terrible VHS intro to the PS1 original, now in their late 40s
Is it just me or is most of Netflix's Good Originals not even produced by them.
@AcridSkull sure,go and search the shows 'big mouth' and 'cuties' and the response from Netflix surrounding the complaints. If soft core child p@#= is now seen as OK,then society really is going to hell
@AcridSkull @Y2JayRome @nessisonett "I certainly hope you are all ready for some inclusive Netflix zombies, more progresssive than the biggoted zombies on those other services; twerking child zombies, moaning gay zombies, zombies that identify as women, closeted but sensitive intersectional zombies, non-binary zombie dogs, full-frontal zombie exposure, just stunning and brave zombies of all creeds, a click away from children, and conveniently sharing the same title as that series that was mentioned in that E-rated crossover game with Mario and Samus. Netflix: 'People need to just get used to modern times.'" Have you guys seen Ozark yet? Yay, Netflix. More like, "Netflix: You can't unsee that, can you?"
@PoorGeno Your profile is filled with hateful comments about ‘the family unit’ and other sinister nonsense. Might want to reapply that clown makeup, your white hood’s showing.
bleah more woke garbage from netflix. pass.
Ehhh. This doesn’t sound that great; I prefer the darker, looming sense of dread in the first two games and the feeling of complete isolation in the mansion out in the mountains.
@DK-Fan A show starring kids is not woke
It's just a show starring kids
It's not the direction I would've liked or even thought of but there's nothing woke about kids just being main characters
@nessisonett Yes, you're all right! People being against the sexualization of children is a facade to hate black people and women. Spot on!
What a clown world we live in
@nessisonett Oh. Well, I like your account. You always add something interesting... yes, like on that The Last of Us thread. I wondered if your icon was glitched-Pattinson (a good actor), but I was afraid I would annoy you if I asked that. I didn't know you could click for old comments. Thanks! When you mentioned "pedo defenders" the wording was like you were saying people who dislike pedos dislike Netflix, but that can't be what you meant, because you like Netflix, same as me, and guys like you and I who make jokes about stuff like hoods or salutes or dumb stuff would report a Pedo, not defend them. Right?
@DK-Fan you’re a petulant sort aren’t you? Grow up.
@nessisonett "The only people I’ve seen unequivocally hating on Netflix are either pedo defenders or ones who hate the fact they put black people and women into TV. " What do you mean about the "pedo defenders" hating on Netflix? I've only seen people who hate pedophiles hating on Netflix, pedophiles seem to be the ones in favor of Netflix's shows and movies like Big Mouth and Cuties.
@PoorGeno There was a controversy recently about Netflix apparently ‘sexualising children’ which turned out to be untrue since the movie in question was a critique of how preteens dancing on things like Tiktok are hypersexualised. I apologise if I’m ratty, it’s so very hard to detect sarcasm online and with the way these commentators go sometimes I tend to take this stuff at face value.
@Tourtus Cuties and Big Mouth are critiques of hypersexualisation. Meanwhile these ‘pedo haters’ get annoyed over MJ and Epstein documentaries while defending the Rapist-In-Chief.
@TheFrenchiestFry It is but it's hard to be optimistic when the creators have no involvement yet again.
At the very least, it should be better than the film but I don't expect anything beyond the mediocre.
@PlayedNSlayed I can't see any complaints about Big Mouth and I've read Netflix's response to the backlash about their Cuties marketing. What's next?
@Ralek85 You’re welcome. 😉 Yeah I wasn’t pleased when I heard either. I’m hoping maybe Amazon or Apple TV+ can sweep in and rescue it.
@PoorGeno not gonna lie that comment made me laugh, waisted some of my beer, but laughed none the less
@nessisonett Still very, very far reaching. Sorry, but before you start slinging nonsense you need to be able to prove it. Right now you're just assuming that the way people react to Netflix guarantees something about them. Sorry, you're just flat-out wrong, but you can go on believing such atrocious things if you wish.
@Wavey84 Yes, and the Castlevania just made me cringe, very, very hard!
I'm always interested in more RE.
I just hope the 2nd time period doesn't become this post-apocalyptic zombie cliche we have seen countless of times.
I hope it’s live action (which is most likely not) and in the same format and quality like Walking Dead.
@Wavey84 I mean, one persons trash is another mans treasure, but how trashy does it have to get?? Lmao
@nessisonett No worries, man. I sometimes wonder why sarcasm doesn't have a font or "prefacing" like questions do in Spanish. ¿You get me? Have a good one.
This will he very interesting.
@TG16_IS_BAE The whole Big Mouth thing started because of a right wing conspiracy website called The Goldwater running the headline “Jewish Netflix series ‘Big Mouth’ Promotes Pedophilia, Homosexuality, Child Masturbation”. It’s no coincidence that it was attacked since it aired an episode calling Proud Boys Nazis and poking fun at alt-right nutters. The irony from these Trump-loving keyboard warriors is stunning given the very clear links between him and Epstein. So yes, a targeted attack by the far-right calling Netflix pedophiles while defending a member of a legitimate pedophile ring alongside Ghislaine Maxwell is of course abhorrent.
I'm so disappointed they cancelled Altered Carbon the first season was so good. Hope it gets anther chance.
Is this animated or live action? Wesker is cool, the RE series idea I'm indifferent about.
@nessisonett Dude, you went from “people who hate Netflix also hate black people,” to all this nonsense right-wing BS. What exactly are you trying to tell me?
@Wavey84 Absolutely agree, 100%. Most of that is a huge dumpster fire, to be cliche.
Cancelled them a few weeks ago and couldn't be happier. The Witcher sucked and was the last nail in the coffin for me. Outside of Stranger Things, I was barely using it anyway. Plus their increasingly overt displays of left leaning propaganda / pro pedo politics started creeping me out, so...it was a pretty easy choice.
@Dahn_ I'm focused more on their more adult related shows that have content that is heavily frowned at, like cuties and big mouth.
Plus, I didn't generalize anything. I never said all of their stuff was evil.
@TheFrenchiestFry I never said anything about death Note,
@Arnold-Kage
It's not like that. Albert Wesker is one of the kids. There were several.
Read about the progenitor virus and you'll understand:
https://residentevil.fandom.com/wiki/Progenitor_Virus
@Aneira
Thanks not that familiar with the RE Lore
@UmbreonsPapa The "adapting" part is what worries me. That said, I am more worried about the cliffhanger thing, or rather the combination of both. Great shows can be made with 10 epsiodes seasons. That said, a 22 episode season does not have to be filler bloated. It runs a higer risk, sure, but neither is a given no matter the length.
@Beaucine Mad Man is good example. It's indeed exactly the type of show I find hard imagining Netflix every putting any serious money behind. It was unique in more than one ways, and really the opposite of binge-able, just as you said. It was often bordering on a quaint meditation on 'how things used to be' rather than a show about anything in particular. That also meant it was not necessarily a 'crowd pleaser' which is a whole other thing: Netflix is very much in the business of crowd pleasers these days imho.
@BulkSlash Normally, it is more the other way round but we shall see. I was not as pleased with the 2nd season as I was with the 1st, but I still enjoyed it very much. Cyberpunk is my jam and there is very little of it on both the big and the small screen. Hell, if you count anime out, there is barely anything worth bothering
@Ralek85 Great points made. Its a real delicate balance. I truly think the best showrunners will be the ones to find a happy medium. Or at the very least, make a case that there's a time and place for both philosophies. I do agree that a 20+ episode season can be done with none or minimal filler and bloat. But there will obviously be some growing pains with the industry trying to figure out what the landscape will be going forward.
I also don't see anything necessarily wrong with a cliffhanger at the end of every episode. But then again, I grew up, religiously watching daytime soap operas with the women in my family. Soaps are five days a week and live on a cliffhanger at the end of almost every episode to get people to come back tomorrow.
And if its not a cliffhanger, a show has to at least have serious advancements in the overall narrative or in a character's journey to get you to want to keep going. You guys mentioned Mad Men and I loved the show overall. But there were defitnetly a handful of episodes that didn't necessarily need to be episodes and the plots of those episodes could have easily been truncated into side plots in other episodes. Even it wasn't immune from what felt like filler episodes.
The first timeline / time period sounds interesting... But the second timeline / time period sounds like a Cliché zombie apocalypse setting. Who thought that was a good idea.
@Kalmaro I liked Castlevania.
@PlayedNSlayed Oh lord...
Another Netflix's low budget original trash.
@UmbreonsPapa You are not wrong, but the term 'filler' just as 'cliffhanger' in itself is predicated on a particular format of heavily serialized story telling.
That is not the entirety of TV, in fact as a heavy focus it is a very recent development. Just look at what used to be the most watched show on Netflix ... Friends! I am not big on friends, but there is no denying is all encompassing success. What happens if you missed an episode of Friends? Well, most likey nothing at all, you just go on to watch whichever episode is up next.
The same goes for Disney+ ! What do people watch over there, consistenly in the Top10? Well, Simpsons. Same thing there, virtually no serialization to be found.
You could say the same for a ton of popular shows, be it Seinfeld, Cheers or even Stark Trek TNG to a large degree, not to mention Law & Order
In a way I feel like TV was for the longest time predicated on NOT being bingeable. While this still exists, it is rather rare as far as streaming originals goes. We are currently undergoing a historical shift in what "TV" bay and large means, and I am only talking scripted here of course.
That is somethat needs to acknowledged. I love bingeable stuff, and for the most part, I actually prefer it, but there is no denying that there was and is huge value in formats like Seinfeld and Simpsons. There a reason many consider these show timeless cult classics. Meanwhile, will anyone remember "Cursed" a year from now? Hardly. It's a fantasy-binge-show amongst an ocean of fantasy-binge-shows.
People will remember Game of Thrones probably. That was bingeable as well, but it's episodes were clearly designed to be be small stories unto themselves, leaving the viewer satisfied enough and with enough meat to keep them mindful for an entire week.
I just hope that we don't end up loosing that.
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