Netflix’s Resident Evil series has divided opinion

Opinion is divided on the first official trailer for Netflix‘s upcoming live-action Resident Evil series.

The show, simply titled Resident Evil, received its first trailer yesterday as part of Netflix’s Geeked Week event, and the reaction has been mixed.

At the time of writing, the video has over 13,000 likes on YouTube, but also has over 28,000 dislikes.

Much of the criticism appears to focus on the show’s apparent decision to take the story in a new direction, rather than retelling stories from the games or bringing back established characters.

“Considering that Capcom has finally put the Resident Evil series back in its rightful place as a beloved franchise, with the reinvention of the games starting with VII, and the stellar remakes of earlier games, it’s a real shame that live action adaptions continue to fail so spectacularly,” said user Miles Quatermass.

“How difficult is it to give us a show set entirely in the Spencer Mansion, that somewhat follows the storyline of the original game? I’m sure it’d be cheaper, too. Even an adaption of VII or Village would be preferable to whatever this is meant to be.”

Another argument frequently being cited is that the trailer hints at a ‘zombie apocalypse’, with one brief shot showing a horde of zombies outside an Underground station in London that’s overgrown with foliage.

“I love stories about the zombie apocalypse but I agree that it doesn’t work for Resident Evil,” said user Tygermite. “I feel that the horror works way better if you’re surrounded by zombies in a secluded area than the whole world facing the threat.”

Other comments are more positive, however. YouTube user TheWorld said: “You know this actually looks pretty good. I’m questioning the relation to the main resident evil plot, but it looks pretty cool.”

“I mean, we just had a Resident Evil reboot movie,” added user Christopher Stanley, “but I’m all for this complete new direction”.

Resident Evil will debut on Netflix on July 14, and will consist of eight one-hour episodes.

Further reading

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Netflix has released the first Resident Evil TV series teaser trailer

The show will feature the Umbrella Corporation from the video game series

A teaser released last month showed ‘New Racoon City’ in 2022 as well as a title card which reads “London 2036”, suggesting the show would follow its characters throughout the fall of society following an outbreak.

According to a Netflix synopsis released in 2020, the show will feature “the Wesker kids” as they uncover secrets inside of New Raccoon City. Albert Wesker is one of the primary antagonists in the Resident Evil games.

“When the Wesker kids move to New Raccoon City, the secrets they uncover might just be the end of everything,” it says.