Netflix is making a Resident Evil show, but it’s very different from the games

The long-rumored Resident Evil show is officially happening on Netflix, but the plot sounds like it’s a far cry from the beloved video games.

Early in 2019, we heard that Netflix was developing a show based on Resident Evil, Capcom’s long-running series of zombie video games that turned into a long-running string of films starring Milla Jovovich as Alive, who spent over a decade in theaters fighting off the bioweapon-loving Umbrella Corporation. Now, Netflix has made it official, giving us a look at the script for the first episode and announcing some personnel:

Like the tweet says, Supernatural producer Andrew Dabb is on board for the show: he’ll serve as producer, writer and showrunner. “Resident Evil is my favorite game of all time,” he said in a statement. “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. 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.”

Like the movies, the plot of the show takes inspiration from the games, but is pretty different. The Netflix series will revolve around Jade and Billie Wesker, two teens who move with their father to the “manufactured, corporate town” of Raccoon City. Fans of the games will recognize the name “Wesker” as belonging to Albert Wesker, one of the series’ main baddies. And indeed the teens discover that their dad is keeping secrets that could destroy the world.

That’s the first of two timelines. For the other, we skip forward more than a decade into the future, where the T-virus has infected most of the world’s population and turned them into monsters; only around 15 million humans remain. Jade, now 30 years old, does her best to survive in the new world.

It sounds interesting enough, but I have to ask: why isn’t the show just adapting the games? With remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 making big splashes of late, you’d figure folks would be eager to see the stories of Leon Kennedy, Jill Valentine and Claire Redfield play out onscreen. But Dabb and company feel the need to invent new characters and play with timelines? Raccoon City is a “corporate town” now rather than just…a city? Whatever makes you happy, I guess.

The first season of Resident Evil will feature eight one-hour episodes. There’s no release date as of yet.

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h/t SyFy Wire