The Resident Evil Avengers assemble in the first full trailer for Resident Evil: Death Island, titled Biohazard: Death Island in Japan. Animation studio Kadokawa gave a fanservice-filled new look into the film, showing series stars Chris Redfield, Claire Redfield, Leon S. Kennedy, Rebecca Chambers, and "The Master of Unlocking" herself Jill Valentine joining forces to combat undead horrors from swimming lickers to zombie sharks on Alcatraz Island. The groups are on separate missions as Leon tracks down the kidnappers who captured Dr. Antonio Taylor while Chris, Claire, Rebecca, and Jill investigate the rise in infected connected to Alcatraz Island. During their assignments, they collide on the prison island for a campy and action-packed ride for the fans.
Jill gets the spotlight early on as Chris and Rebecca reflect on her previous brainwashing at the hands of Albert Wesker before the story kicks into gear. All suspicions point to Alcatraz as the source of infection, but it's quickly shown that it's all the work of the film's big bad with the likely unwilling help of Dr. Taylor. That's enough to get everyone in one location to fight off hordes of classic Resident Evil zombies including Jill in Leon who run into each other for the first time in franchise history. There's little time for pleasantries, however, as someone managed to steal data on Leon, Jill, Chris, and Claire and the four are all under attack by strange variants of the infected. It all culminates in a glorious shot that sees all five heroes together for an action shot that calls to mind The Avengers as they face down their foe and his new virus.
The rest of the trailer is all about showing off the action along with the series' signature camp. Chris whips out a rocket launcher from nowhere along with a sick Hawaiian shirt, zombie sharks enter the fray, Leon dodges cars flying over his head in a wild motorcycle chase scene, and Jill delivers action hero line after line. It all culminates in a borderline-hilarious slow-motion scene of the five heroes dodging a tentacle in increasingly-acrobatic ways.
When Does Resident Evil: Death Island Release?
Death Island is directed by Assassination Classroom's Eiichirō Hasumi with Berserk screenwriter Makoto Fukami serving as a producer. The CG film is the latest in a line of animated projects of varying quality for the franchise, acting as a direct sequel to Resident Evil: Vendetta. With so much fanservice coming into the project, it looks to right the ship for the franchise on-screen after the poor reception of Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City and Netflix's short-lived series. At the very least, it's a landmark moment for fans of the games with the meeting of Jill and Leon and the full cast of heroes banding together for the first time.
There's still no international release date for the film, but Japanese audiences will get to see the action-packed film on July 7. Check out the trailer below.