Resident Evil Is Being Rebooted At Netflix, But Is It A Terrible Idea?
While this may have been great news a few years ago, Netflix hasn't been the most reliable source of content recently. Their original shows and movies have been sporadic at best, with some great stuff to be found for sure, but also home to a whole load of material that's seemingly farted out with no quality control. Resident Evil does seem like a perfect fit for the platform though, as Netflix have ventured - and will venture - into the video game adaptation realm with the animated Castlevania series and the upcoming live-action version of The Witcher.
On the surface, then, this could be a brilliant move for the IP. The film series, while successful, wasn't exactly "good", especially to fans wanting a faithful adaptation of the games. The show at least seems to be righting that major wrong by sticking to the series' plot a little closer, a fact reinforced more by the project's working title, "Arklay". Fans will recognise that moniker as referring to the Arklay mountains, the location of the very first T-Virus outbreak, suggesting the plot (of the first season at least) will be using the original game (and maybe 0) as a basis.
A faithful adaptation doesn't guarantee a good adaptation though, and the limits of a TV structure could hamper the promise of a proper Resident Evil reboot. When another movie was being planned with Wan, the apparent focus was on horror, something which has notoriously been difficult to properly capture on TV. Netflix's House on Haunted Hill fared better than most, but the structure of a series doesn't really lend itself to sustained terror like a self-contained movie does.
That might be a worthy trade though, as being able to split Resident Evil's focus over multiple episodes could finally allow the franchise to fully embrace each part of the source material's mad lore. A main issue of the films was how they tried to cram in so many memorable characters and plots from the games, with the majority ending up being pushed to the side in favour of protagonist Alice. With more screen time and no need to focus on just one character, a TV show should ensure that everyone gets their due.