The Resident Evil universe has always been a bit… dense, let’s say. There are twists upon twists and people dying and coming back and then dying again but also coming back again, good guys turned evil and vice versa, and a succession of about 18 people behind the scenes of every viral outbreak or genetic manipulation that causes players to fight off hordes of zombies and other, weirder monsters. And yet, somehow, Netflix’s anime series Infinite Darkness seems extra-confusing, which is really saying something.
Maybe it’s the lack of obvious, meaningful connection to the games, other than reuniting Resident Evil 2‘s Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield. Maybe it’s because the last trailer seemed so straightforward, focusing primarily on an attack on the White House. Either way, man, this new trailer feels almost impenetrable. Maybe you can make heads or tails of it.
If that wasn’t crystal clear to you, don’t feel bad. The official and utterly massive new synopsis for the series clearly feels like it has a lot of explaining to do (and yet none of explains the Alien Coffee Motel):
“Six years ago (2000), the helicopter belonging to the U.S. special forces who were intervening in the Penamstan civil war fell from the sky. The U.S. Army Mad Dogs, who were in the same battleground, refused orders from the command centre to stand their ground and instead went to save survivors of the crash. However, the special forces were already annihilated. The Mad Dogs, led by their captain Jason, were also forced to escape in order to survive.
“However, in that place, Jason and his unit saw the supposedly dead special forces moving in strange ways…
“In the present (2006), a hacking incident occurs on a top secret White House file. Four agents, including Leon S. Kennedy and Jason, the “Hero of Penamstan,” are invited to the White House to investigate this incident. However, when the lights suddenly go out, they are forced to take down a horde of mysterious zombies alongside the SWAT team. Afterward, the top secret file is found to be related to a biology laboratory in Shanghai, which Leon and the other three agents decide to investigate for clues. As they head to Shanghai in a cutting-edge submarine, a swarm of rat-like Bio Organic Weapons (B.O.W.) suddenly attacks, pushing them into a life-or-death situation.
“Meanwhile, while staying in Penamstan to provide support for refugees, Terra Save staff member Claire Redfield encounters a strange image drawn by a nonverbal boy. Haunted by this drawing, which appears to depict a victim of viral infection, Claire starts her own investigation. She eventually finds a terrifying experiment that was conducted during the Penamstan civil war. Leon and Claire draw closer to an unimaginable truth that all began in Penamstan. They also discover that a terror that can shatter peace is slowly approaching…”
There’s so much going on here. Remember, this series only has four episodes, so Infinite Darkness is going to have a great deal of plot to get through in a very short amount of time, which could be breathlessly exciting or moving so fast the plot is basically incomprehensible. If you’ve played a Resident Evil game before, you might have thoughts about which way this series will end up.
Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness will premiere on Netflix on July 8. It’s directed by the live-action Assassination Classroom adaptation’s Eiichiro Hasumi and overseen by longtime Resident Evil game producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi. Nick Apostolides and Stephanie Panisello, who voiced classic RE characters Leon and Claire in the recent Resident Evil 2 remake, return for their respective roles.