The Resident Evil franchise will live on, now as a TV show. Netflix announced today that it will be making a new live-action Resident Evil TV series based on the survival horror video game franchise. Andrew Dabb, who served as co-showrunner on The CW series Supernatural starting in its 12th season, is serving as showrunner, executive producer, and writer for the new series, which will play out in two different timelines. The first season will consist of eight one-hour episodes.

The synopsis for the Resident Evil show and explanation of the two timelines is as follows:

In the first timeline, fourteen-year-old sisters Jade and Billie Wesker are moved to New Raccoon City. A manufactured, corporate town, forced on them right as adolescence is in full swing. But the more time they spend there, the more they come to realize that the town is more than it seems and their father may be concealing dark secrets. Secrets that could destroy the world.

 

Cut to the second timeline, well over a decade into the future: there are less than fifteen million people left on Earth. And more than six billion monsters -- people and animals infected with the T-virus. Jade, now thirty, struggles to survive in this New World, while the secrets from her past - about her sister, her father and herself - continue to haunt her.

This is a kind of neat idea to tell both an origin story and the meat of the Resident Evil story that fans love at the same time, and it’ll be interesting to see actors play the same characters across different timelines.

Bronwen Hughes (Berlin Station, The Walking Dead) will direct and executive producer the first two episodes, with Constantin Film serving as the producing studio.

“Resident Evil is my favorite game of all time,” said Dabb in a statement. “I'm incredibly excited to tell a new chapter in this amazing story and bring the first ever Resident Evil series to Netflix members around the world. For every type of Resident Evil fan, including those joining us for the first time, the series will be complete with a lot of old friends, and some things (bloodthirsty, insane things) people have never seen before."

The Resident Evil game series was previously adapted into a feature film franchise that kicked off in 2002 and concluded in 2016 with the sixth film, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. Those movies were anchored by Milla Jovovich as Alice, and found Albert Wesker recurring as the antagonist head of the Umbrella Corporation. Indeed that last name is shared with the two protagonists of this TV show, so it’ll be curious to see if we’re following the heroes or the villains of the story…

Constantin Film, which produced the movies, had been working on a feature film reboot of the Resident Evil franchise and initial casting was underway earlier this year, but it now appears as though they may be putting their focus on a TV version instead.

Work is well underway, as you can see by the script page shared below. What do you think folks? Are you all in on this Resident Evil Netflix series idea? Sound off in the comments.