‘How The F*** Is This Resident Evil?’ Fans Are Not Happy With Netflix’s New Adaptation
We’re never getting a faithful adaptation of the video game
Netflix has been working on a live-action series of Resident Evil for a while now. Finally, during the course of its Geeked Week event, the streaming giant dropped the first trailer of the zombie-action series.
While the show shares the same name as the popular video game franchise, folks at Netflix have adopted a completely new storyline, with new characters and a different reimagining of the zombie outbreak that wiped out life on Earth.
Here’s what the official synopsis reads: “The Year 2036 – 14 years after a deadly virus caused a global apocalypse, Jade Wesker fights for survival in a world overrun by the blood-thirsty infected and insane creatures. In this absolute carnage, Jade is haunted by her past in New Raccoon City, by her father’s chilling connections to the Umbrella Corporation but mostly by what happened to her sister, Billie.”
The 2-minute trailer opens with a hellish landscape covered with a horde of zombies trying to run over a watchtower. We then slowly cut to the introduction of ‘The Umbrella Corporation,’ the ultimate bad guys in the video games, who release the T-Virus bringing forth the apocalypse.
The series is helmed by writer, showrunner and executive producer, Andrew Dabb, who’s served as a producer on CW’s Supernatural. Starring in the new Resident Evil adaptation is Ahad Raza Mir, Adeline Rudolph, Paola Nuñez, Ahad Raza Mir, Connor Gossatti, and Turlough Convery.
While it’s not fair to judge the series on a very brief trailer, we can’t help but notice that it looks like any other generic run-of-the-mill zombie apocalypse show. What made Resident Evil so popular was its remoteness and the feeling of being isolated while facing a monster or a zombie. The (in)famous Milla Jovovich movies proudly ignored all of this and settled for a mind-numbing action-adventure franchise. Sadly, the Netflix adaption doesn’t look any different.
And we’re not alone who feel this way. Fans of the video game franchise have been coming out and voicing their criticism of the series. Here’s what they are saying:
The new Netflix Resident Evil series looks fun and also not like Resident Evil once again. We will never get proper remakes of the games. I’m pretty sure the creators of the franchise love money and Cocaine too much to do anything of value with the story pic.twitter.com/dekg8GqHyR
— Jeff Schwartz (@JiffSchwazz) June 6, 2022
Is this a Resident Evil? pic.twitter.com/TpgHfInUrS
— HYNMOTA (@HYNMOTA) June 6, 2022
So far the best part of Netflix's Resident Evil is the Licker poster they revealed in the live stream, which looks brilliant.
— Luke Woolhead (@Th3Lonef0x) June 6, 2022
It reminds me of this concept art from Alien 3 by Mike Worrall.
Other than the nice Licker poster… pic.twitter.com/IQrslcUKU7
Netflix fucked up Resident Evil somehow smh
— LORD KENTUCKY KENJI 🌎🍃🇸🇻 (@kenjiboijoi) June 6, 2022
The resident evil Netflix show is gonna suck I can't wait
— Dawn💜 (@dawnlovesualot) June 6, 2022
Please stop destroying the resident evil series. It's bad enough Capcom released resi 5+6. Netflix please just stop. https://t.co/d0lPlYfqtJ
— Leedle-kun (@leedle999) June 7, 2022
( Image credits: Netflix )