Unfortunately, The Resident Evil reboot turned out to be a flop. Despite the filmmakers actually digging deep into the source material’s roots by focusing on the events that took place in the first and second video game, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City still ended up with an abysmal rotten tomatoes score. More importantly, the reboot flopped hard at the box office, with the studios quietly sneaking in the latest entry during Thanksgiving week and the film only made $5.3 million in its opening. Thus far, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City has only made $24.80 million, easily the lowest-earning entry in the entire live-action franchise. Since then, Sony has been very quiet in regards to a sequel; Given the box office failure of the attempted relaunch, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see another Resident Evil movie for a good period of time. However, does this mean that the live-action films are done for good? In 2022, a Resident Evil series will make its way exclusively onto Netflix so it’s obvious that the property isn’t done in the film and entertainment landscape. However, let’s examine what could happen to the live-action films going forward.
Character-Driven Pieces of the Core Characters Will Be Explored
It’s insane how every filmmaker who’s tried to make a live-action adaptation of the popular source material has completely failed to truly make a good RE movie. Paul W.S. Anderson’s versions wildly deviated from its source material; however, there’s no denying that the films were a money-generating machine, which is why the executives greenlit a reboot of the franchise while Resident Evil: The Final Chapter was still in theaters. Despite many fans putting the six Milla Jovovich films in the “so good it’s bad” category, the previous installments have damaged the franchise’s name to audiences. Welcome to Raccoon City only furthered that damage. Sony quickly lost confidence in the feature once the terrible reviews poured in and the company notably went silent in regards to making this film. Still, fans just want a good Resident Evil movie and given the rich and layered source material, it’s definitely possible. Hell, if Phil Lord and Chris Miller can make a fantastic movie based on Legos then there should be no reason why a good Resident Evil can’t be made.
The possibility of another film is strong, but we likely won’t see another live-action adaptation for a good amount of time. There’s money making possibilities with this franchise. One of the avenues that the filmmakers may venture into is a character driven piece based on one of the notable names from the popular horror series. Ideally, the film would be better off focusing on one of the villains. I don’t mean the Umbrella corporation. Of course, they’ll always be a vital part of the series and if the film is on James Marcus – the founder on the Umbrella company – then it’s an integral part of the story. However, focusing on the psychotic Baker Family could provide some fun storytelling surrounding the monsters in Resident Evil 7. There’s plenty of layers there for a compelling film and the story of Eveline gives the plot some more juice. It’s possible that Albert Wesker could get the spotlight, but his name is really tainted due to his mistreatment in the previous films. Given the huge amount of popularity for Alcina Dimitrescu, I wouldn’t discount her from being the chosen one. The villain has an interesting backstory and the landscape could be a welcome change of scenery for the live-action series. I opted to not put any of the protagonists of the video games because they’re not the starters of the Resident Evil world. It’s still important to capture the look and tone of the Resident Evil games, thus documenting one of the core villains would be a better route horror wise. Ada Wong could be another interesting route to take. Granted, a film about the character could ruin her mystique, but she’s a valuable commodity within the world.
A Film Based on Resident Evil: Biohazard or Village
Like I stated previously, the Baker family are perfect horror movie villains and a live-action adaptation could continue the franchise without being stuck in the world that the previous entries visited. Biohazard and Village are fresh entries that could help revitalize audiences’ interest in the franchise; however, the key thing is that it actually has to be good. All the pieces of the puzzle are there. There’s a plethora of interesting villains in both games, and a story deep and layered enough to be translated into a feature film. Of course, not everything can be translated and as Welcome to Raccoon City proved, a heavily faithful adaptation doesn’t guarantee a good movie. If the executives are smart then they’ll get an experienced horror director for the next feature. James Wan is an obvious choice that stands out, but Mike Flanagan would be a great pick as well. Either way, the executives need to focus on making a great movie if they want to milk this cash cow for all its worth.Mike Flanagan
Follow Us
