Netflix has announced that it’s ordered a series based on the classic horror survival game Resident Evil. According to Variety, the series will follow two timelines: a pair of sisters who move into New Raccoon City, while the second will jump ahead a decade after a massive zombie outbreak takes over the world.
The game originally launched in 1996, about a pair of special police officers who investigate some disturbing murders: the victims had been chewed on. As they investigate, they discover that a series of biomedical experiments from a company called the Umbrella Corporation produced the T-virus, which mutates people into zombies.
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The TV series has been in the works for a while. Deadline reported in January 2019 that Netflix was developing the series, with the aim of expanding and deepening the franchise’s mythology. Earlier this year, The Witcher fansite Redanian Intelligence reported that the series was still in the works and that production was expected to begin in June.
The show, according to Variety, will look at the before and after of the zombie outbreak, following a pair of sisters, Jade and Billie Wesker, who move to the Umbrella Corporation’s corporate city, New Raccoon City, where they discover that the company has a dark secret. The show will also follow Jade in the aftermath, as she’s haunted by her past.
Netflix says that the show’s first season will run for eight episodes. Long-time Supernatural writer and showrunner Andrew Dabb will head the show, while The Walking Dead director Bronwen Hughes has been tapped to direct the show’s first two episodes.
When the Wesker kids move to New Raccoon City, the secrets they uncover might just be the end of everything. Resident Evil, a new live action series based on Capcom’s legendary survival horror franchise, is coming to Netflix. pic.twitter.com/XWh5XYxklD
— NX (@NXOnNetflix) August 27, 2020
There’s no word on when the series will begin production, or when it’ll debut on the platform. But like its hit series The Witcher, it’s clear that Netflix is eyeing a series that could be expanded out into a much larger franchise.
The original game has spawned dozens of sequels and remakes, and was adapted into a long-running film franchise helmed by Paul W.S. Anderson starting in 2002. A reboot of the film is also apparently in the works from director 47 Meters Down: Uncaged director Johannes Roberts.
