Constantin Film has confirmed that work is officially underway on a reboot of the Resident Evil movie franchise. Unlike Paul Anderson’s films (which had less to do about the games and more about his wife, Milla Jovovich), the reboot will take place in Raccoon City and attempt to faithfully adapt Capcom’s original survival-horror hits, Resident Evil (1996) and Resident Evil 2 (1998).
“With this film, I really wanted to go back to the original, first two games and the associated terrifying experience that I had when I first played them,” said director and screenwriter Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down). “And at the same time, I’m telling the story of a tiny, dying American town that will seem both familiar and relevant to today’s audiences.”
“After a dozen games, six live action films and hundreds of pages of fanfiction, we felt compelled to go back to 1998 to explore the secrets that lay within the walls of the Spencer Mansion and hidden from Raccoon City,” added Constantin Film producer Robert Kulzer.
The S.T.A.R.S. of the reboot have also been announced, but fans aren’t thrilled with some of the casting choices. Hannah John-Kamen (Jill Valentine) and Avan Jogia (Leon S. Kennedy) look nothing like their respective characters, they say.
“An exciting cast slips into the roles of the legendary characters: Kaya Scodelario (The Maze Runner) plays Claire Redfield and Hannah John-Kamen (Ant-Man and The Wasp) plays Jill Valentine,” a press release reads. “Robbie Amell (Upload) will play Chris Redfield, Tom Hopper (The Umbrella Academy) will play Albert Wesker, Avan Jogia (Zombieland: Double Tap) will appear as Leon S. Kennedy and Neal McDonough (Yellowstone) as William Birkin.”
We would have liked to see Sienna Guillory in the Jill Valentine role again, as she did the character plenty of justice in 2004’s Resident Evil: Apocalypse. That film also had a surprisingly accurate version of Resident Evil 3’s stalker, Nemesis.
The Resident Evil reboot will be released in 2021.