Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City Director Has Interesting Plans For A Potential Sequel
The upcoming "Resident Evil: Raccoon City" is aiming to reboot the "Resident Evil" movie franchise, and if it's a hit, it won't be long before we're talking about a sequel. And director Johannes Roberts already has an idea of what that might look like.
"Raccoon City" represents a bit of a change in approach to how video game movies are made. While past "Resident Evil" movies traditionally appealed to the fans of the video games, "Raccoon City" is trying to be a standalone horror movie that will appeal to a broader audience. But that doesn't mean "Raccoon City" will feel like a generic zombie movie. It has plenty of details that should make fans of the games happy.
"Raccoon City" is primarily based on the first two games in the "Resident Evil" franchise, which tell the origin story of the Umbrella Corporation that unleashed the zombie virus on the titular small midwestern town, and the sibling ex-cops Claire (Kaya Scodelario) and Chris Redfield (Robbie Amell) who have to stop it. Like the games, the movie will mostly take place in the Spencer Mansion and the Raccoon City Police Department.
But that still leaves many more "Resident Evil" games that future movies could draw from. So what's a sequel to do?
The next Resident Evil movie could look a lot like Resident Evil 4
In an interview for the upcoming issue of SFX Magazine, Roberts talked his plans for the next "Resident Evil" movie.
"I am obsessed with the fourth game, Roberts said, referring to the 2005 title "Resident Evil 4," which was originally released on GameCube. "I could very much see that becoming part of the next installment. There's a lot of interesting lore and tiny details that we have brought into this movie, but would be amazing to expand on. There are characters that we didn't use in this game that we would love to expand upon in the next movie. There's also a different side of Resident Evil with Village and Resident Evil 7, where it's a much darker, more horrific world" (via GamesRadar+).
A movie based on "Resident Evil 4" would look a lot different than "Raccoon City." That game found Leon Kennedy traveling to rural Spain to rescue the president's daughter, who'd been abducted by a cult. That cult, Los Illuminados, has been infecting local villagers with a parasite called Las Plagas. Sure enough, it turns out that Los Illuminados have ties to Umbrella, the sinister corporation behind the virus that devastated Raccoon City.
"Resident Evil 4" has plenty of memorable characters, especially the villainous cult leader Osmund Saddler, and the warped, diminutive heir of the local rich family, Ramon Salazar.
"Resident Evil 7: Biohazard" (2017) and "Resident Evil: Village" (2021) don't tie directly into "Resident Evil 4," but do share similar details, like a crazed family infected by the virus and an isolated European village setting.
Clearly there's plenty of "Resident Evil" lore to fuel many more movies — but "Raccoon City" needs to deliver the goods first. It will be exclusively in theaters starting November 24, 2021.