Lance Reddick took to social media to give praise to his fellow castmates and showrunners following Netflix’s announcement that its Resident Evil live-action series would not be renewed for a 2nd season. The show debuted with 72.7 million hours viewed for a number 2 spot during its first week of release but then dropped off the top ten chart by its third week.
A special thank you to all the fans who watched #ResidentEvilNetflix, the showrunners, my castmates, executives and more. We worked our asses off and had a great time. pic.twitter.com/A98aQVuA7t
— Lance Reddick (@lancereddick) August 27, 2022
Fans were divisive with the series that attempted to tell a different story in the RE universe set fourteen years after another virus caused a global epidemic. The storytelling style used for the series employed constant flashbacks to connect the future events back to previously known RE lore after the events in Racoon city but often resulted in criticisms from fans and reviewers alike. Lance portrayed researcher Albert Wesker who had a deep involvement with the development of the T-virus by the Umbrella Corporation. Mr. Reddick said in his video tribute that he was proud of what they did and how hard the team had worked on it.
“I want to do this video because I wanted to do some acknowledgments and some thank yous,” he said. “As all of you are well aware by now, our show Resident Evil on Netflix has been canceled. And the haters and the trolls notwithstanding, I want to give a special thank you to all the fans who watched the show, got what we were doing, and really loved it because there are a hell of a lot of you.”
“We worked our asses off. We had a great time. And we made a helluva show. Thank you, onward and upward,” he concluded.
To be fair to the series, the Resident Evil franchise has had mixed results, at best, with its many varied adaptations. From Paul W.S. Anderson’s films to 2021’s Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, to multiple animated features including another Netflix series, Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness (helmed by several of the same showrunners for this live-action series), projects rarely get unified praise from fans and reviewers. Most manage to contain some elements that are liked but none seem to quite hit the bullseye for fans.
Source: Deadline