''Resident Evil'' is an

action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction **Psychological horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Christmas horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Analog horror, a subgenre of horror fiction * ...

television series developed by

Andrew Dabb Andrew Dabb is an American writer in the field of television, movies, and graphic novels. Career Andrew Dabb's works include '' Ghostbusters: Legion'', ''Happydale: Devils in the Desert'', and '' Atomika''; as well as the ''G.I. Joe'' and ''Du ...

for

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

. Loosely based on the video game series of the same name by

Capcom is a Japanese video game company. It has created a number of critically acclaimed and List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil'', ''Monster ...

, it is the second television adaptation of the franchise after the animated miniseries '' Infinite Darkness'' (2021), and the third live-action adaptation after the film series of the same name and the

reboot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...

film '' Welcome to Raccoon City'' (2021). The series is set in its own universe, but features the video games' storyline as its backstory and basis. The series features an ensemble cast led by

Lance Reddick Lance Solomon Reddick (June 7, 1962 – March 17, 2023) was an American actor. He portrayed Cedric Daniels in ''The Wire'' (2002–2008), List of Fringe characters#Phillip Broyles, Phillip Broyles in ''Fringe (TV series), Fringe'' (2008–201 ...

as the clones of

Albert Wesker is a character in the ''Resident Evil'' survival horror video game series created by the Japanese company Capcom. He was first introduced in the original ''Resident Evil'' (1996) as the captain of the Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A ...

Ella Balinska Ella Balinska (born 4 October 1996) is an English actress who starred in the action-comedy film ''Charlie's Angels'' (2019) and the Netflix original series ''Resident Evil'' (2022). Early life and education Balinska was born on 4 October 1996 ...

and

Adeline Rudolph Adeline Rudolph (born 10 February 1995) is a Hong Kong-born actress. She began her career in modeling before making her debut in the Netflix series ''Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV series), Chilling Adventures of Sabrina'' (2018–2020). She ...

as Wesker's children,

Tamara Smart Tamara Valerie Smart (born 14 June 2005) is an English actress. She made her debut in the CBBC series ''The Worst Witch'' (2017–2020). She has since appeared in the revival of ''Are You Afraid of the Dark?'' (2019) and the Netflix series ''Re ...

and

Siena Agudong Siena Nicole Agudong (born 2004) is an American actress. On television, she is known for her roles in the Nickelodeon series ''Star Falls'' (2018), and the Netflix series ''No Good Nick'' (2019) and ''Resident Evil'' (2022). Her films include '' ...

as the daughters' younger selves, Paola Núñez as James Marcus's daughter Evelyn, and

Ahad Raza Mir Ahad Raza Mir (; born 29 September 1993) is a Pakistani-Canadian actor who primarily works in Urdu-language television. Mir is the recipient of several awards, including four Hum Awards and a Lux Style Award. The son of actor Asif Raza Mir, Mi ...

as Arjun Batra. It alternates between two timelines, following Jade and Billie Wesker during their days in New Raccoon City where they discover their father's and

Umbrella Corporation ''Resident Evil'' is a horror game media franchise created by Capcom. The series' success has led to a live-action film series, animated films, television series, comic books, novels, audiobooks, and merchandise. The franchise features an exten ...

's dark secrets, and 14 years in the future, where Jade tries to survive the end of the world. In 2019, Netflix began development with

Constantin Film Constantin Film AG is a German film production company based in Munich. The company, which belongs to Swiss media conglomerate Highlight Communications AG, is a large independent German maker and distributor of productions. Constantin has releas ...

, the rightsholders who have previously produced the film series, as the production company involved. The series was formally announced in 2020, having been greenlit as an eight-episode series with each episode one hour in length. Dabb was hired as

showrunner A showrunner is the top-level executive producer of a television series. The position outranks other creative and management personnel, including episode directors, in contrast to feature films, in which the director has creative control over th ...

alongside a number of other Netflix projects. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, production was delayed eight months and took place from February to July 2021. ''Resident Evil'' premiered on July 14, 2022, to generally mixed reviews from critics and highly negative reviews from audiences. In August 2022, the series was canceled after one season.

Plot

After Raccoon City was destroyed by a retroviral bio-weapon called the T-virus in 1998, the

faced public scandal and a significant drop in stock prices. By 2003/2004, their federalisation and liquidation were upheld by the courts and found liable for victim compensation. Umbrella Corporation itself declared bankruptcy soon after, but was able to recover under the guidance of its CEO Evelyn Marcus, daughter of the late Umbrella co-founder James Marcus, in the hopes of regaining trust and the truth surrounding the Raccoon City incident was buried.

, a former Umbrella executive, planned to trigger an

extinction event An extinction event (also known as a mass extinction or biotic crisis) is a widespread and rapid decrease in the biodiversity on Earth. Such an event is identified by a sharp fall in the diversity and abundance of multicellular organisms. It occ ...

with the help of his clones Al, Alby and Bert until he was killed in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

. The clones went into the custody of Umbrella. The series' main plot is spread out between two points in time – 2022 and 2036, with a gap of 14 years. The past plotline deals with the struggles of 14-year-old fraternal twins Billie and Jade, the children of Al Wesker, conceived through a genetic engineering project. Their lives take a dramatic turn when Al is awarded an executive position at the struggling Umbrella Corporation that once employed him, moving to Umbrella's planned community, New Raccoon City in South Africa. While there the two girls stumble onto the dark secrets behind their origins and Umbrella's dark legacy, their father coordinates a response to the outbreak of the T-virus, which spreads to the rest of the world, marking a societal collapse known as "The Fall". In the present of 2036, the T-virus has reduced human civilization to 300 million refugees living in walled city-states and other settlements, surrounded by the six billion man-eating humans known as Zeroes who contracted the disease. The most powerful organization left on Earth is the Umbrella Corporation, backed by its military arsenal, who are conducting a global manhunt for Jade.

Chris Redfield is a character in ''Resident Evil'' (''Biohazard'' in Japan), a survival horror series created by the Japanese company Capcom. He was introduced as one of the two player character, playable characters of the original Resident Evil (1996 vide ...

Jill Valentine is a character in ''Resident Evil'' (''Biohazard'' in Japan), a survival horror series created by the Japanese company Capcom. She was introduced as one of two player characters in the original ''Resident Evil (1996 video game), Resident Ev ...

Leon S. Kennedy is a character in ''Resident Evil'' (''Biohazard'' in Japan), a survival horror video game series created by the Japanese company Capcom. Leon was introduced alongside Claire Redfield as one of the two player characters in the video game ''Re ...

Claire Redfield is a character in ''Resident Evil'' (''Biohazard'' in Japan), a survival horror series created by the Japanese company Capcom. Claire was first introduced alongside Leon S. Kennedy as one of two player characters in ''Resident Evil 2'' (199 ...

and

Ada Wong is a character in ''Resident Evil'' (''Biohazard'' in Japan), a survival horror video game series created by the Japanese company Capcom. Ada was first mentioned in the original ''Resident Evil (1996 video game), Resident Evil'' (1996), befo ...

were expected to appear in upcoming seasons.

Cast and characters

Main

as Jade Wesker **

as young Jade Wesker *

as Billie Wesker **

as young Billie Wesker * Paola Núñez as Evelyn Marcus, James Marcus's daughter and CEO of the Umbrella Corporation *

as: ** Dr. Albert "Al" Wesker, Jade and Billie's father ** Bert Wesker, Jade and Billie's uncle and Al's brother ** Alby Wesker, Al and Bert's deceased brother **

, a rogue Umbrella operative who created several clones of himself

Recurring

Turlough Convery Turlough Convery (born 18 March 1991) is an actor from Northern Ireland. He is best known for his role as Bear in series 3 of the BBC Three series '' Killing Eve'', as Liam in '' My Mad Fat Diary'', and as Arthur Parker in the ITV series '' San ...

as Richard Baxter, an Umbrella soldier * Connor Gosatti as Simon Marcus, Evelyn's son *

as Arjun Batra, Jade's partner * Ella Zieglmeier as Bea, Jade's daughter * Pedro de Tavira Egurrola as Angel Rubio, a reporter In addition, Candice van Litsenborgh co-stars as Mother Zero,

Anthony Oseyemi Anthony Oluwakayode Oseyemi (born 17 January 1977) is a British–South African actor of Nigerian descent. He is best known for the roles in the films and teleserials '' Five Fingers for Marseilles'', '' The Congo Murders'' and '' Isidingo''. Ap ...

co-stars as Roth,

Lea Vivier Lea Vivier (born 15 January 1992) is a South African actress, best known for her leading role in the Showmax original series ''Dam'' (2021) and her appearances in the films ''The Day We Didn't Meet'' (2021) and ''Wonderlus'' (2017). Early life ...

co-stars as Susana Franco, Casey B. Dolan co-stars as

Lisa Trevor ''Resident Evil'' is a 1996 survival horror game developed and published by Capcom for the PlayStation (console), PlayStation. It is the first game in Capcom's ''Resident Evil'' franchise. Set in the fictional Arklay mountain region in the Midw ...

, and Marisa Drummond co-stars as a guard.

Episodes

Production

Development

In January 2019, it was announced that

was in development of a series based upon the ''Resident Evil'' franchise. No major updates were given, until August 2020 when it was revealed that the series had been picked up for 8 one hour episodes. It was also revealed that

would write the series, in addition to him serving as an executive producer and showrunner.

Bronwen Hughes Bronwen Hughes is a Canadians, Canadian film director. She was born in Toronto and is of Welsh people, Welsh descent. A graduate of the Department of Film, York University, she has directed commercials and feature films. Filmography Films Tel ...

was also executive producer and directed the first two episodes. Production was originally set to take place from June to October 2020, to be handled by Moonlighting Films, which previously worked on '' Resident Evil: The Final Chapter''. Due to the

, however, these plans were shelved for the rest of the year. Over 2020 the series went through retooling, with the promotion of Jeffrey Howard as co-Executive Producer in place of Dabb who was busy overseeing ''Grendel''. Production resumed on February 19, 2021, with principal photography split into four production blocks and concluding on July 9. On August 26, 2022, Netflix canceled the series after one season.

Casting

Casting took place in November 2020, with casting directors working in the United Kingdom, United States for the principal cast, and South Africa for the supporting cast and extras. American actor

was cast in the role of

. The role of Billie Wesker was given to American actresses

and Adeline Rudolph, with British actresses

and

cast as her sister Jade. Paola Núñez was cast in the role of Wesker's assistant, Carol. Pakistani actor

joined the cast for the role of Arjun Batra.

Filming

Principal photography took place from February to July 2021. Internal scenes were filmed on a soundstage at Cape Town Film Studios, while dilapidated local buildings such as the Werdmuller Centre and the Maitland Abattoir were used for location filming. Production was divided into four production blocks, with directors Bronwen Hughes, Rob Seidenglanz, Batán Silva and Rachel Goldberg each responsible for two episodes each. As part of block 3, scenes were filmed aboard the ''

Sarah Baartman Sarah Baartman (; 1789 – 29 December 1815), also spelled Sara, sometimes in the diminutive form Saartje (), or Saartjie, and Bartman, Bartmann, was a Khoekhoe woman who was exhibited as a freak show attraction in 19th-century Europe under ...

'' and S.A. ''Agulhas'', with the help of Frog Squad, a company specialising in underwater filming.

Marketing

While Netflix maintained a press embargo on the series before and during principal photography, a synopsis for an early series pitch was accidentally published and then deleted. Similarly, an early copy of the first episode's script was published on the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

before being taken down in a copyright complaint. The series was officially announced in August 2020, with Andrew Dabb posting the front page of the completed "Welcome to New Raccoon City" script, with the principal cast being announced near the end of filming in June 2021. Marketing for the series proper began on November 30, 2021, with the opening of an official Instagram page for the series, which posted an image of a mutant dog which was set to appear. Two trailers were released online on May 11, 2022, with the first two episodes aired at a private press screening. In attendance, Dabb described the original universe of the show as featuring the video games as their backstory and basis.

Release

The series was released on July 14, 2022, on Netflix.

Reception

Critical reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reported a 54% approval rating with an average rating of 5.8/10, based on 50 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "While ''Resident Evil'' comes closer than previous adaptations to honoring the beloved video games' labyrinthine lore, this zombie serial could still use more brains." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the first season has a score of 53 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The audience and fan reaction to the show was overwhelmingly negative.

Audience viewership

According to Samba TV, 988,000 US households watched the premiere of the series during its first four days streaming on Netflix. The series premiere over-indexed most with Black and Hispanic viewers by +29% and +27% respectively. It debuted second, behind ''

Stranger Things ''Stranger Things'' is an American television series created by the Duffer brothers, Duffer Brothers for Netflix. Produced by Monkey Massacre Productions and 21 Laps Entertainment, the Stranger Things season 1, first season was released on N ...

'' (season 4), then dethroned it days later. From July 11 to July 17, the show was the second most streamed on Netflix globally, and was within the top 10 in over 92 countries.

Notes

References

External links

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