TheResident Evilhorror video game franchiseis said to be one of the most popular gaming series of all time and has been around since 1996, holding the Guinness World Record for the “Most Live-Action Film Adaptations of a Video Game." It consists of eight mainline games, comic books, plays, animated films and TV shows, seven live-action films, and a ton of spin-offs, but despite a variety of adaptations, none have lived up to theResident Evilgames. But when Netflix’sResident Evilseries was announced,fans hoped it would differand be a realistic and accurate adaptation, especially following the unsuccessful animated four-part seriesResident Evil: Infinite Darknessthat Netflix released last year.
Only adapting aspects of the many games in theResident Evilfranchise, the series tells an original story focused on new characters. Set in its own universe and jumping between New Raccoon City in 2022 and a virus-ravaged world in 2036, it features Lance Reddick as the villainous Albert Wester and Ella Balinska and Adeline Rudolph as Wesker’s children, Jade and Billie. The story focuses on the strained relationship with their father after they discover some dark secrets behind the origins of the Umbrella Company that he is an executive of.
The Deadly Outbreak
Following theoutbreak of a deadly viruscalled T-virus, we head into 2036 where human civilization has been reduced to 300 million and the refugees live in isolated walled city states, surrounded by six billion bloodthirsty infected humans known as Zeroes, who contracted the virus. The events have ripped the family apart with Jade fleeing to Europe to become an expert in Zero biology in order to try and save the world, and Billie remaining with the Corporation, eventually setting up a global manhunt for her sister, who she actually believes to be dead.
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Netflix’sResident Evil series was supposed to be their latest big video game adaptation and was expected to be on par withThe Witcher. However, despite a strong 72 million viewings in the first week, the following weeks dropped dramatically, and the series was instantly slammed by critics, leaving both long-term and newcomer fans very disappointed. Although there is no official reason as to why Netflix did not renew a second season, it is felt that the series failed on numerous levels, such as horrendous dialogue like the reference toZootopiafan fiction, its confusing narrative, and also poor performances.
While video game adaptations do require original plots, the stories and characters should be successfully adapted from the game elements. It could be suggested that theResident Evilseries would have been the perfect opportunity to adapt these elements and tell the classic stories of the games, however, despite an attempt to adapt some of the game elements, some fans found the story uninteresting and confusing, and the execution was rather chaotic. It also would not have helped that the release of the series came right after the highly anticipatedSeason 4 ofStranger Things, which topped the ratings spot, so it is reasonable to say thatResident Evilwas competing with such high standards and might have been thrown out of the top 10 rather quickly without much of a chance.
The Resident Evil Virus is Over
Following the news of the cancellation,Lance Reddick took to Twitterthanking those who were a part of the series and acknowledged its end saying: “as all of you are well aware by now, our showResident Evilon Netflix has been cancelled." He acknowledged and gave thanks to the fans who watched the show, and he went on to thank the leaders of the series, Mary Leah Sutton and Andrew Dabb along with his castmates, the production company, and the executives at Netflix who believed in the series. Despite viewers and critics slamming the level of performance and quality of the show, Reddick concluded by saying, “we worked our asses off, we had a great time, and we made a hell of a show. Thank you. Onward and upward.”
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Showrunner Andrew Dabb will no doubt also be disappointed with the cancellation of the series, as he had already discussed his huge plans for a season two. The director of the popularSupernaturalseries that ran for an amazing 15 series even hinted thatResident Evilcould be the one to beatSupernaturaland give him a run of 16. Some fans might be suggesting that he should have included some of those future plans into season one, which could have led to another couple of seasons to help the series get into a groove.
Despite somefans taking their disappointment to Twitter, claiming they enjoyed the show and feel like it had potential and would definitely have loved a season two, ultimately, the many ways in whichResident Evilfailed made Netflix’s decision to cancel it inevitable with no hope of another network jumping in to take it on. The show will now join many other showscancelled after just one seasonat the streamer includingCowboy Bebop,The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance,Spinning Out,and most recent,First Kill.
