The Resident Evil Franchise is mostly known for its video games, but it has dabbled in television and movies from time to time. However, most of them weren’t extremely popular. Fans have a pretty polarized view of the movies even if they sold decently over time, but either way, it seems that Netflix is going to give it another shot, green lighting a Resident Evil show that has a director from Breaking Bad attached to it.
The show will be live-action, and is being produced by Constantin Film, the exact same production company that had a hand in the Mila Jovovich Resident Evil films, which have amassed $1 billion in box office sales over the course of several years. Apparently, the show will not be based on any of the video games in the franchise, instead electing to tell a new story that will be told from the perspective of two different timelines.
The first of these timelines will follow two 14-year-old siblings, Billie and Jade Wesker, the daughters of major series villain Albert Wesker who live in New Raccoon City. Naturally, things are not at all what they seem and the sisters find themselves in grave danger. The second timeline that the story will follow is set more than ten years beyond that point, where the population of Earth has been reduced to a measly 15 million humans, with the race massively outnumbered by creatures infected with the T-Virus. Jade is at least 30 in this timeline, though we don’t know what types of challenges she will face.
The official description of the show is as follows:
“In the first timeline, 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.”
“Cut to the second timeline, 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.”
Andrew Dabb of Supernatural renown is the showrunner, executive producer, and writer for this installment of Resident Evil on Netflix.
“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,” Dabb said in a statement. “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.”
The first season will have eight episodes, with each one being an hour long. Bronwen Hughes, who has worked on episodes of Breaking Bad, will be directing the first two episodes of the season.
In other news, a reboot of the Resident Evil movie franchise is also on the way, though it will likely be some time before we see it.