Sony Confirms Resident Evil Reboot Movie Release Date
You can stand under our umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh. Although it might seem like an instant since Sony announced it would be rebooting the Resident Evil franchise in live-action, the upcoming zombie horror has just landed a release date. While gamers hide behind their cushions and prepare to run from Lady Dimitrescu in Resident Evil Village, it's back to the start for the origins of Racoon City with the 2021 reboot injecting new life into the T-Virus.
The long-running Resident Evil series came to an end with Resident Evil: The Final Chapter in 2016, as the once-beloved franchise limped to the grave. Although none of the movies ever got above 37% on Rotten Tomatoes (with The Final Chapter ironically being the highest-rated), Paul W.S. Anderson's six-movie series pulled in a whopping $1.23 billion at the box office and only ranks behind the Conjuring and Alien movies ($1.6 and $1.3 billion respectively).
Anderson's movies were camp, they were trashy, and they had almost zero regard for the source material. As characters like Ada Wong, Jill Valentine, and Leon S. Kennedy were sidelined, perhaps the most tragic casualty was Wentworth Miller's portrayal of Chris Redfield being confined to just one movie. Yes, the creation of the OG character of Alice meant Milla Jovovich's ass-kicking Umbrella exile became an icon in her own right (and definitely worthy of the games), however, she was hardly a well-rounded heroine.
What is the Resident Evil reboot release date?
Click to enlargeUpdate: The long-awaited Resident Evil reboot, officially called Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, was released on November 24, 2021.
According to Deadline, Constantin Films and Sony's currently untitled Resident Evil reboot has targeted a September 3 release. The start of the US Labor Day weekend is sure to be a big pull for cinemagoers, however, this date could move given COVID-19. We've already seen another video game giant shift from its planned release when the Tom Holland-led Uncharted was delayed.
Taking place on the night of the Racoon City incident in 1998, the movie has nabbed an all-star cast of Kaya Scodelario (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) as Claire Redfield. Scodelario takes over from Ali Larter in the old franchise and appears to be the main character of the reboot. She's joined by Hannah John-Kamen (Ant-Man and the Wasp) as Jill Valentine, Robbie Amell (Arrow) as Chris Redfield, and Avan Jogia (Zombieland: Double Tap) as Leon S. Kennedy.
It's a who's who of RE favourites, with the cast being rounded off by Tom Hopper (The Umbrella Academy) as Albert Wesker and Neal McDonough (Desperate Housewives) as William Birkin. Over the years, there have been various animated Resident Evil movies that have told the stories Anderson never managed to. Hyping the movie, director Johannes Roberts told Screen Rant, "It’s gonna be super scary. It’s super, super scary. And it’s just getting back to the roots of the game". Considering Village's Maiden demo was pants-wettingly scary, we dread to think what's in store.
Resident Evil reboot movie release: What else do we know?
Click to enlarge2021 is a massive year for Resident Evil - as the recent Capcom Showcase showed us. Away from Village and Resident Evil Re:Verse, there's two Netflix projects thanks to the 3D/CGI Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness and a live-action series from Supernatural Executive Producer, Andrew Dabb. It's unclear how/if Roberts' movie will tie into any of this, but with an impressive cast and idea we'll get a proper origin story, it definitely sounds like Sony is scoping out a new franchise.
Filming only just wrapped on Resident Evil in December, so it's hard to believe how quick the potential release has come around. Then again, it's easy to forget the reboot was actually announced in late 2019. Hopefully, the studio will have learned what did and didn't work from the Anderson days.
In a new era where video game movies like Sonic the Hedgehog and Detective Pikachu lead the way, there's proof that the genre deserves its place alongside the games it's based on at the top of the charts. Then again, we do have 2018's Tomb Raider. Either way, the Resident Evil reboot release shows this one franchise that still has the "bite" to climb to the top of the box office.
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