Reaction to the debut trailer for Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City was mixed. There’s a ton of fun Easter eggs and references packed into it, but also some terrible CGI and a general aura of B-movie cheapness. I’m still hyped: after all, Resident Evil has always taken its inspiration from B-movies, and I’m hopeful the more iffy monster FX shots will be improved in the final product.
One aspect that’s also questionable is the casting: sure, the scenery looks like it’s been ripped from Capcom’s games, but the characters seem quite different. Now we’re getting a series of “character vignettes”, with the latest focusing on Tom Hopper’s villainous Albert Wesker. Check it out:
Wesker was the antagonist of the 1996 original, hiding out as a member of S.T.A.R.S. and betraying his teammates in order to conduct combat experiments using Umbrella’s biological weapons. He’s continued to be a major presence in the games, popping back up in CODE: Veronica and Resident Evil 5 with virus-induced superpowers and a plan for complete global saturation.
But Hopper won’t be the only Wesker in town for long. Netflix has announced their own Resident Evil show about Wesker and his daughters, starring The Wire, John Wick, and Horizon Zero Dawn‘s Lance Reddick.
Rumor has it that this story will be split into two timelines, one following Wesker’s teenage daughters as they move to Raccoon City and learn about their Dad’s viral escapades and another ten years later in which they’re struggling through a monster-filled apocalypse. This is still very much an unknown quantity, so let’s hope we hear more soon.
In the meantime Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City hits theaters on November 24. Fingers crossed the advance reviews come out soon and have positive things to say.
Published: Oct 29, 2021 07:14 am