A Resident Evil TV series is officially moving ahead at Netflix and the streamer has given an eight-episode order to the drama series inspired by the survival horror game franchise.
Supernatural executive producer/co-showrunner Andrew Dabb is taking on writing duties for the project while Constantin Film, which is behind the Resident Evil movies, is producing. It has also been announced that the series will feature a brand new story across two timelines. In timeline number one, 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.
This then moves us to timeline number two where 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.
The Resident Evil TV series has been in development at Netflix since early 2019. This is around the time that Netflix sent out a search for a writer that would be ideal for the project and judging from Dabb’s enthusiasm, he may be the right choice for the job:
Resident Evil is my favorite game of all time. I’m incredibly excited to tell a new chapter in this amazing story and bring the first-ever Resident Evil series to Netflix members around the world.”
The TV series will incorporate all of Resident Evil’s signature elements, including action sequences and “easter eggs” and Dabb even suggested that characters from the franchise will appear on the show, along with new monsters:
“For every type of Resident Evil fan, including those joining us for the first time, the series will be complete with a lot of old friends, and some things (bloodthirsty, insane things) people have never seen before.”
Since the first game debuted back in 1996, Resident Evil has become one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time, with more than 100 million games sold worldwide. Over the course of almost 25 years, the series has expanded beyond games into film adaptations and theme park attractions. The film franchise launched back in 2002 and spanned six films. To date, the franchise has cumulatively earned $1.2 billion worldwide and it ranks as the highest-grossing film series ever based on a video game. Paul W. S. Anderson was behind the six-movie series, which starred Milla Jovovich and wrapped in 2016 with Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. Since the conclusion of the film franchise, talk of a TV series began, which we are getting via Netflix, and a restart of the film franchise has also been discussed which would feature a brand new cast.
