Resident Evil Has Been Canceled
The axe falls at Netflix again!
We’ve got some devastating news for fans hoping to see Resident Evil renewed for a second season on Netflix. Deadline reports today the streaming platform “has opted not to order a second season of Resident Evil.” The action horror series premiered July 14th and didn’t perform particularly well for the streaming giant.
Resident Evil is loosely based on Capcom’s video game franchise of the same name, which is the company’s best-selling series to date. As of June 2022, more than 127 million copies have been sold worldwide making it the top-selling horror game series EVER. Unfortunately, Netflix wasn’t able to recreate the same success for their television adaptation.
On the big screen, Resident Evil was massively successful. After the release of Resident Evil in 2002, the film spawned fives sequels and went on to become the second highest-grossing video game movie series with more than $1.2 billion. The motion picture franchise centered on Alice (Milla Jovovich) and her desperate attempt to bring down the notorious Umbrella Cooperation following a laboratory accident that turned humans all around the globe into brutal zombies with a craving for human flesh.
Just last year, Constantin Films attempted to launch a brand-new Resident Evil film franchise with Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Although fans appreciated director Johannes Roberts’ attempt to stay truer to the video game series than the previous Resident Evil movies did, the action horror flick was considered a box office dud. Welcome to Raccoon City grossed a mere $17 million at the domestic box office, and just $21 million internationally. The on-going pandemic may be partly responsible for the movie’s poor performance, but with a 30% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, it just wasn’t a very good film.
Constantin Films has been behind every live-action Resident Evil adaptation to date. Oddly enough, the company was developing the series for Netflix while simultaneously working on the film Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Following the poor reception of their movie, the studio was likely hoping to redeem themselves with the television show, which is the second television adaptation of the video game franchise after the animated miniseries Infinite Darkness. Following today’s report that Netflix has decided not to renew Resident Evil for a second season, the series is yet another unfortunate loss for Constantin Films.
Resident Evil featured an incredibly diverse cast consisting of Ella Balinska (Jade Wesker), Tamara Smart (Young Jade Wesker), Adeline Rudolph (Billie Wesker), Siena Agudong (Young Billie Wesker), Lance Reddick (Albert Wesker), Anthony Oseyemi (Roth), and Connor Gosatti (Simon). Although their time on the Netflix series was cut short following the show’s cancellation, the network has made it a goal to work with the cast members in the future. In fact, according to Deadline, Paola Núñez is already set to appear “in Netflix’s upcoming series Fall of the House of Usher and in Fuga De Reinas, a film from Latin America.”
From showrunner Andrew Dabb, Resident Evil takes place over two timelines. The first involves 14-year-old sisters Jade and Billie Wesker, who move to New Raccoon City. Shortly after, they realize that their father Albert may be concealing dark secrets that could destroy the world. The second timeline is set a decade in the future, where only 15 million humans remain. With the rest of mankind infected with the T-virus, Jade, now 30, must fight to survive. Although Resident Evil won’t be renewed for a second season, you can still stream all eight episodes of the first season on Netflix.
