The Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City movie is going to dig closer to the true origins of the franchise than any movie we've seen before. And while it's coming soon, it's nog going to arrive as early as originally expected, debuting after halloween 2021, and not before it.
And while there have been many Resident Evil movies, you don't need to know who the Umbrella Corporation is to understand what's going on in Raccoon City. The film is going to be an introduction to the situation that led to the first and second Resident Evil games.
That means that the film will be set in 1998, so expect some flashbacks to what it was like when we only had a PlayStation and had no idea how hard it would be to find a PS5.
- The best Netflix shows to binge watch now
- Best streaming services, ranked
- What we know about The Witcher season 2
While the specific plot points for Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City are TBA, we do have some details. First off, it will be split between two locations: Raccoon City Police Station and the Spencer Mansion.
You can also probably can get a pretty good idea about the film by playing Resident Evil 2 Remake. Director Johannes Roberts called that game the template for this movie.
Latest Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City news (updated July 22)
- Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City's release date got pushed back to Thanksgiving week
- We've got the official synopsis for the movie, check it out in the plot section below
- We can expect some of the fixed-angle camera style from the games in the movie
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City release date
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City got bumped back to November 24, 2021. Its original release date was September 3, and no reason for the delay was given.
It won't go on streaming on day 1, per the title and original date announcement tweet from Sony.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City cast and crew
The film's main cast is filled with Resident Evil's most familiar characters. Yes, both Chris and Claire Redfield (Robbie Amell and Kaya Scodelario, respectively) are here, as well as Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen) and Leon S. Kennedy (Avan Jogia).
Director Johannes Roberts is familiar with suspense-driven horror. Known for the 47 Meters Down films, which are filled with sharks, Roberts cites John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 and The Fog as his "filmic inspiration."
Roberts has explained that his other inspiration is from his own fandom of the original Resident Evil games. He told Deadline "I really wanted to go back to the original first two games and re-create the terrifying visceral experience I had when I first played them."
Roberts told Entertainment Weekly that "The big thing for me on this movie is tone. The thing that I loved with the games was they were just scary as hell, and that is very much what I wanted, that atmosphere. It's raining constantly, it's dark, it's creepy, Raccoon City is this rotten character, ... I wanted to put [that] in and mix it with the fun side, especially with the first game's around-the-corner style of storytelling. We had a lot of fun, down to the fixed-angle-playing that the first game had when we're in the Spencer Mansion."
Interestingly enough, Roberts has intent to make the Raccoon City world a lot more relatable, too. He also told Deadline that his aim is to tell "a grounded human story about a small dying American town that feels both relatable and relevant to today’s audiences."
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City plot
Roberts is telling a different origin story than the previous Milla Jovovich RE movies told, which he confirmed to EW.
The official synopsis of the film, via Rotten Tomatoes, reads as follows:
Once the booming home of pharmaceutical giant Umbrella Corporation, Raccoon City is now a dying Midwestern town. The company's exodus left the city a wasteland...with great evil brewing below the surface. When that evil is unleashed, the townspeople are forever...changed...and a small group of survivors must work together to uncover the truth behind Umbrella and make it through the night. Returning to the terrifying roots of the massively popular Resident Evil franchise, fan and filmmaker Johannes Roberts brings the games of the billion dollar franchise and the most successful video game adaptation in history to life for a whole new generation of fans.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City trailer speculation
There is no Welcome to Raccoon City trailer yet, and we're not sure when one will arrive (though the September/October 2021 window seems likely).
Netflix just dropped its chaptered CGI animated movie Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, and announced the Resident Evil live action series starring Lance Reddick.
- More: The best streaming devices to watch your favorite movies
