Resident Evil TV Series In Early Development At Netflix
The evil continues.
A day ahead of Capcom launching its much-buzzed-about remake of its survival horror title Resident Evil 2, word broke that Netflix is developing a television series based on the franchise. According to an exclusive scoop by Deadline, the project is in early development and will be a "global original" on Netflix.
The outlet further noted that the Resident Evil series is set up at Constantin Film, the production and distribution company that brought the Resident Evil movies starring Milla Jovovich as the zombie-slaying badass Alice to the big screen, and that the studio's executives and the brass at Netflix are currently looking for a showrunner to take the reins and get the adaptation off the ground.
Neither Netflix nor Constantin Film commented on the news, though sources close to Deadline indicated that the series will build upon the Resident Evil universe and "deepen" the franchise's mythology as it explores "the dark inner workings of the Umbrella Corporation and the new world order caused by the outbreak of the T-virus." Described as a drama, the project is slated to include "all of Resident Evil's signature elements" — so fans of the game and film series can likely expect to see places like Raccoon City, the Arklay Mountains, and the Hive, as well as loads of undead creatures and blood-soaked action sequences in which our protagonists attempt to take them down. The Resident Evil Netflix series is also said to incorporate plenty of Easter eggs that franchise enthusiasts will have a blast uncovering.
At this point in time, we don't know anything else about the Resident Evil project housed at Constantin and Netflix. It doesn't seem likely that Jovovich will play any sort of part in the show, given that she already top-lined six Resident Evil films: Resident Evil (2002), Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), Resident Evil: Extinction (2007), Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010), Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016). Likewise, though no information regarding which characters the series will focus on was immediately available, we predict that the Resident Evil series probably won't place Alice at the forefront. She's already had plenty of time in the spotlight through the movie series, so perhaps the television show will take a few of the video game characters and position them in the lead — like Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine from the 1996 original, or Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield from the sequel released in 1998.
A Resident Evil TV series may sound like overkill to some, not only because the video game series has been kicking for 23 years now and the film franchise ran for 14 years but also because Constantin Film just recently announced that yet another Resident Evil movie is headed out way soon. This time, it's a reboot, written and directed by Johannes Roberts and starring an entirely new cast of characters. That film is scheduled to start production this year — meaning that we could see it hit silver screens sometime in 2020.
With Netflix in the beginning stages of development on the Resident Evil series, there stands a chance that the reboot movie and the show will arrive shortly after one another. Audiences may experience a bit of over-saturation if that ends up the case, but hey, Netflix and Constantin Film are basically guaranteed to turn a huge profit — the Resident Evil film series has earned more than $1.2 billion worldwide and stands as the most financially successful video game movie series in history. Like there's always money in the banana stand, there's always cash to be found in the Resident Evil franchise.