The new teaser trailer for Netflix’s upcoming television adaptation of Resident Evil has arrived, and it looks pretty sweeping in scope. But this isn’t exactly great news for OG fans of the long-running game franchise. Many of them wish Netflix would just keep it simple.
Twitter user @ImMatticusFinch posted a plaintive complaint that Netflix seems to have forgotten the simpler origins of the game, specifically the “Mansion Incident” that set off the events of the very first game. Whereas the Netflix series spans the globe from the fictional Midwestern Raccoon City to London, England, the original game kept to the confines of the Spencer mansion in fictional Arklay County, the secret home of the Umbrella Corporation’s biochemical warfare experiments with the T-Virus that spawned the Queen Leech.
The upset is understandable on many levels. The Resident Evil film franchise by Paul W.S. Anderson featuring Milla Jovovich wasn’t a direct adaptation of the original video game either and only used disparate elements of the game in its seven different installments. Many fans were hoping Netflix would stick the landing on a faithful adaptation, but, despite featuring A-level talent like actor Lance Reddick, it appears to be as loosely based on the source material as its predecessors.
Many of the comments under the trailer’s YouTube site indicate the same frustration expressed by @ImMatticusFinch. User potatoguy21 writes, “I just want a real adaptation of the games and I want to see the characters we know and love brought to life instead of just making up some story and new people that are vaguely related to Resident Evil because they mention Raccoon City and the T-virus once or twice … Is that so much to ask?”
Fans will have to wait until July 14th, when Netflix begins streaming Resident Evil, to find out if the show offers any other ties to the original game than some shared terminology or if they’re stuck waiting for another adaptation to see the inside of the Spencer Mansion on anything other than a gaming monitor.