Netflix’s latest look at its wild take on Resident Evil lore has all the sorts of things you’d expect from, well, a wild take on Resident Evil lore: there are zombies, and they’re not exactly the shambling hordes of the earlier games. There’s plenty of weird monsters. There’s also no one learning literally anything about the franchise’s perpetual big bad, the sinister Umbrella Corporation.
We got our first look at Netflix’s new Resident Evil show last month, setting the stage for what to expect in so far as its dual timelines. One is set in an alternate 2022 where, after the events of the Resident Evil games, genetics corp Umbrella has established a New Raccoon City as a utopian corporate haven, promising that it’s learned its lesson from the last time it got involved in Raccoon City — which lead to it being torn apart by zombie hordes and then eventually nuked during the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3. The other is set in 2036 when, uhh… well, it’s the zombie apocalypse again. You can probably guess what caused it!
This new trailer focuses much more on that latter timeline, showcasing a bunch of apocalyptic action as we see star Ella Balinska as Jade Wesker, the daughter of Resident Evil’s perpetual cackling mastermind Albert Wesker (played here by Lance Reddick). We don’t get any real answers as to how Wesker survived the events of the games, or how he is seemingly an entirely different person, even though Resident Evil showrunner Andrew Dabb teased that those events are still canon to the new show. But we do get one thing: duh, of course Umbrella started another zombie apocalypse.
There’s a bunch of famous foes from the game harassing Jade and her friends here, beyond the not-so-shambling hordes — classic horrors like the zombie dogs, more out-there mutants like the giant spiders from the early games or the iconic Licker. But past Resident Evil projects have leaned on “hey we have these monsters from the games!” before and still not managed to reliably offer something as compelling and often as camp as to what made the Resident Evil games so beloved in the first place, so time will tell if this latest riff will be able to deliver. At least it looks like the action will be fun, even if it’s predicated on no one listening when the Umbrella Corporation screams “we’re up to some shady business!” over and over again until zombies happen… err, over and over again.
We don’t have to wait much longer to see how it holds up though: Resident Evil hits Netflix on July 14.
Want more Gizmodo news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.