Huge Casting News Drops For The Resident Evil Origin Story Movie

Get your green herbs ready, folks, because we're heading back to Racoon City. After six wildly successful (financially, not critically, and not necessarily with fans of the games) movies, the Resident Evil film franchise came to an end with 2016's aptly titled Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. Almost as soon as that story wrapped up, it was announced that a rebooted series was in development. Now, there's some official casting news and information about the plot of the first film in the new franchise that is sure to thrill fans of the storied video games that serve as inspiration.

Deadline is reporting that six roles have been cast, and each of them is a character from the original games. Ant-Man and the Wasp's Hannah John-Kamen and The Babysitter: Killer Queen's Robbie Amell have been cast as Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield, the special forces police officers who are the protagonists of the original video game. Kaya Scodelario of The Maze Runner will play Claire Redfield, the tough and compassionate sister of Chris, while Avan Jogia from Zombieland: Double Tap is set to play Leon Kennedy, a rookie police officer who worked with Claire to escape the zombie-infested Racoon City in the second game of the series. Rounding out the core cast are Tom Hopper and Neal McDonough as the villains Albert Wesker and William Birkin.

The upcoming film's writer and director, Johannes Roberts of 47 Meters Down fame, also gave fans a tease of what to expect from this live-action Resident Evil origin story.

Anyone with a passing knowledge of the video games the movie franchise is based on will recognize all the characters in the casting announcement as major players in the first three games in the series. Those games all take place in the summer and fall of 1998, and chronicle an outbreak of a deadly zombie-causing virus, which escapes from a secret lab in a secluded mansion. According to Roberts, that will also serve as the set-up for his film.

Roberts told Deadline, "With this movie, I really wanted to go back to the original first two games and re-create the terrifying visceral experience I had when I first played them whilst at the same time telling a grounded human story about a small dying American town that feels both relatable and relevant to today's audiences."

Producer Robert Kulzer went a step further, adding, "[W]e felt compelled to return to the year 1998, to explore the secrets hidden in the walls of the [Spencer] Mansion and Raccoon City."

So, while there's no confirmation about whether this movie will closely follow the narrative of the original games, it's clear that it will be pulling heavily from the locations, story, and lore established therein. Here's hoping that between this new movie and the upcoming Netflix series, fans finally get an adaptation that manages to capture the atmospheric horror that made those games iconic.