Sony’s Johannes Roberts-directed film reboot Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City will be releasing on November 24, with the new movie promising to return us to the “terrifying roots” of the original video games, particularly Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2. In other words, this one has nothing to do with the previous movies, which starred Milla Jovovich.
IGN has scored the very first images from the upcoming movie this week, which put the spotlight on Claire Redfield, Leon S. Kennedy, Jill Valentine, and the nightmarish Lisa Trevor.
Check them out below and head over to IGN for all kinds of fresh insights!
Roberts tells IGN, “I wanted to go back to the horror of it all. I wanted scares and atmosphere rather than full-on action. I think fans of the game felt the same.”
“They wanted to see the iconic characters and locations and feel that the movie was more in line with the game world so that’s really why we chose to go in that direction,” Roberts continues. “We worked hand in hand with Capcom on this movie to the point that we actually got blueprints from them on the designs of the Spencer Mansion and Raccoon police station in order to recreate them as perfectly as we could. We even have the exact artwork up on the mansion walls. Capcom saw it for the first time the other day and was so happy and excited.”
Here’s the full official synopsis…
“Returning to the terrifying roots of the massively popular franchise, fan and filmmaker Johannes Roberts brings the games of the billion dollar franchise and the most successful video game adaptation in history to life for a whole new generation of fans.”
“Once the booming home of pharmaceutical giant Umbrella Corporation, Raccoon City is now a dying Midwestern town. The company’s exodus left the city a wasteland…with great evil brewing below the surface. When that evil is unleashed, the townspeople are forever…changed…and a small group of survivors must work together to uncover the truth behind Umbrella and make it through the night.”
The cast includes Kaya Scodelario (Crawl) as Claire Redfield alongside Hannah John-Kamen (Ant-Man and the Wasp) as Jill Valentine, Robbie Amell (Upload) as Chris Redfield, Tom Hopper (The Umbrella Academy) as Albert Wesker, Avan Jogia (Zombieland: Double Tap) as Leon S. Kennedy, and Neal McDonough (Yellowstone) as William Birkin.
Additionally, Donal Logue (Silent Night, “Gotham”) is playing Chief Irons in the “origin story adaptation” of the games that’s set in Raccoon City in 1998.
The movie will be releasing theatrically, and it’s said to kick off “a new universe inspired by storylines and characters from Capcom’s classic Resident Evil games.”
L-R: Albert Wesker (Tom Hopper), Brad Vickers (Nathan Dales), Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen), and Chris Redfield (Robbie Amell).
Avan Jogia as Leon S. Kennedy and Kaya Scodelario as Claire Redfield in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City’s Lisa Trevor (Marina Mazepa).