A new Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City image brings the survivors together. The survival-horror video game franchise Resident Evil began on the PlayStation console way back in 1996. The first movie based on the games was released in 2002.
Little did anyone know it at the time but the Resident Evil film series was only just getting started in 2002. Sequels Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Resident Evil: Extinction came in 2004 and 2007 respectively. In 2010 original Resident Evil director Paul W.S. Anderson returned to the franchise after a two film hiatus to helm Resident Evil: Afterlife. Anderson would hold on to the reins for the next two movies, Resident Evil: Retribution in 2012 and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter in 2016. Star Milla Jovovich would of course remain the single common thread through all six original Resident Evil movies, which otherwise were all over the map in terms of story. But Jovovich won’t be back as Resident Evil reboots for Welcome to Raccoon City, which instead stars Kaya Scodelario alongside Hannah John-Kamen, Robbie Amell, John Hopper, Avan Joglia, Donal Logue, Neal McDonough and Lily Gao.
A newly released image from Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City features a few of those main cast members decked out in their gear as members of the Raccoon Police Department’s STARS team. Fandango shared the picture as part of their big Fall Movie Preview. It can be seen in the space below:
Not pictured in the above image is Crawl star Scodelario as Claire Redfield. But the image does give fans a glimpse of John-Kamen as Jill Valentine, alongside Amell as Chris Redfield and Hopper as Albert Wesker. Obviously one of the big selling points of Welcome to Raccoon City is that it figures to be more faithful to the versions of these characters that appeared in the original games. Needless to say, the Jovovich-led run of Resident Evil movies made little effort in the beginning to be faithful to the source material and only strayed further away as time went by. Tone-wise, the new film will be more horror and less sci-fi action, at least according to director Johannes Roberts. In terms of narrative the film will much more faithfully adapt the first two games in the series, making it in essence an origin story.
The newly released image featured above doesn’t give anything away in terms of plot but does tease the movie’s STARS team and their gear. Thus far things are looking up as regards Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City delivering on its promise to be a more authentic Resident Evil experience than the Jovovich series. It however remains to be seen if this new beginning for Resident Evil will ultimately spawn a huge run of sequels or be a one-and-done situation.
Source: Fandango
