Resident Evil Reboot's Biggest Hurdle Adapting The First Two Games
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City must find a way to connect the timeline of the first two video games, which involves a time jump and a third video game installment that bridges the gap. The upcoming Resident Evil reboot aims to stick closer to the original tone and the plot of the video game franchise by adapting its narrative foundations more accurately. The movie will be set in Raccoon City in 1998 and will focus on the beloved protagonists of Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2.
In more than two decades of history, Resident Evil has amassed a large and loyal fan base with 24 video games and six movies. Although the Milla Jovovich-led films thrived at the box office, they have been criticized because they strayed too far away from the original story. Now, Johannes Roberts' upcoming reboot promises to be a faithful adaptation of the first two video games with an impressive cast that includes Kaya Scodelario as Claire Redfield, Hannah John-Kammen as Jill Valentine, Robbie Amell as Chris Redfield, and Avan Jogia as Leon S. Kennedy.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City aspires to recreate the tone and the genre of the original video games, but it needs to be creative with its plot if it wants to be faithful to the narrative of the first two installments. The first Resident Evil video game follows Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield as they find out that Umbrella Corporation has created a virus that turns people into zombies and other living beings into monsters. Albert Wesker (played by Tom Hopper in the reboot) also turns out to be a double agent from Umbrella who intends to kill the surviving S.T.A.R.S. members. The second game follows Claire Redfield, Leon Kennedy, and Ada Wong two months after the events of the first time, as most of Raccoon City has already been infected by the T-virus.
The two months between the first and the second video game are crucial to the outbreak. So, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City needs to avoid making an awkward time jump in the middle of the movie or a jarring sped-up infection. Besides, other stories in Resident Evil canon complement, flesh out, and even retcon some of the details from the early installments — not to mention the existence of the more streamlined remakes of the first Resident Evil video game trilogy. For instance, the first half of Resident Evil 3, which follows Jill Valentine as she attempts to escape from Nemesis in Raccoon City, takes place 24 hours before the events of Resident Evil 2 and continues to explain the motivations of Umbrella. If the reboot intends to spawn a franchise, it must make the narrative more clear than the overly complex timeline of the video games.
The first Resident Evil video game offers the reboot an advantage: it has four different alternate endings. The film probably won't use it to kill off a key character like the game does, but it could be the source of more creative freedom to solve the two-month gap issue. While Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City promises to follow the narrative of the video games, a compelling depiction of the characters, the plot, and the world of Resident Evil is what matters the most.
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