It’s time to return to (New) Raccoon City for a whole new generation of zombies, pandemics, and gross corporate malfeasance. Netflix has confirmed that it’s making a live-action Resident Evil show to tell a new original story, one with a surprising connection to the video games.
In a press release, Netflix revealed that Supernatural showrunner Andrew Dabb will be helming this new adaptation of the Resident Evil story, based on the video game series about a virus that turns people into zombies (and makes a crap-ton of other creatures). Bronwen Hughes, who worked on The Walking Dead, will direct the first two episodes of the eight-episode season.
The story will be told across two timelines. In the first one, 14-year-old twin sisters Jade and Billie Wesker have moved to the manufactured town of New Raccoon City, where they discover that something is seriously wrong. Spoilers: It’s that they’re making a deadly pathogen, among other stuff. The second timeline jumps 16 years into the future, after the T-virus has spread throughout the globe, infecting billions of people and and creating terrifying monsters that prowl the streets. Jade is now one of only 15 million survivors and she struggles to get by — while grappling with what happened to her sister and father.
It’s unconfirmed who their mysterious and powerful father is but we’ve got two guesses, and both would be pretty wild. The first would be Albert Wesker, a virologist-turned-superhuman from the Resident Evil series. He was a key researcher on the T-virus Project, only to later betray the Umbrella Corporation and then become a superhuman bent on destroying humanity. He had a son in the games, but they could easily reconfigure his story to include other kids.
However, the twins could also be connected to the Spencer Foundation, which was run by Umbrella Corporation president and total psychopath Oswell Spencer. Several gifted kids were taken from their parents at a young age, living in group homes while also taking part in a secret eugenics-based project to give them superpowers. All the kids took the last name “Wesker.” Either way, we’re guaranteed to see some creepy monsters and even creepier lack of government oversight. Also, zombies again.
No expected release date for Resident Evil has been announced.