Early this morning,Resident Evil rebootactor Chad Rook has shared what looks to be the first key art for the upcoming movie ahead of its release in theaters this fall. Although the artwork brandishes the Constantin Film and Sony Pictures logos, it has yet to be shared by their specific channels, so it’s not entirely clear if this is the movie’s official first poster. In any case, the image succeeds in teasing Johannes Roberts' reboot that will have much more in common with the original source material.
In theResident Evilmovie, Rook plays Richard Aiken, a character that was only featured in the original video game (along with its remake). Several other familiar names are shown on the poster that gamers will recognize, as this version will be much more faithful to thevideo gamesthan Paul W. S. Anderson’s movies. The poster also brandishes the movie’s premiere date of August 21, 2025.
Johannes Roberts writes and directswith Robert Kulzer producing. Along with Rook as Richard Aiken, other characters that will appear inResident Evilare Claire Redfield (Kaya Scodelario), Chris Redfield (Robbie Amell), Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen), Leon S. Kennedy (Avan Jogia), Albert Wesker (Tom Hopper), Ada Wong (Lily Gao), William Birkin (Neal McDonough), Chief Brian Irons (Donal Logue), and Lisa Trevor (Marina Mazepa).
Set in 1998,Resident Evilwill divulge the secrets of the Spencer Mansion andRaccoon City, serving as an origin story of sorts for the first and second video games. This has piqued the interest of a lot of fans of the games, as the previous movie series has faced a lot of criticism for taking so many liberties with the story. While a lot of people clearly wanted to see a more faithful adaptation, series writer-director Paul W. S. Anderson explained last year why he chose to go in another direction.
“By having a completely fresh character andtelling a prequel story to the world of the video games, it gave us some more dramatic license that we wouldn’t have had if we had just done a straight adaptation of any one of the games,” Anderson said at New York Comic-Con in October.
Despite the fan backlash over the creative changes, theResident Evilmovies were incredibly successful at the box office. Between 2002 and 2017, Anderson had written and directed six movies with Milla Jovovich starring as original character Alice. Collectively, the series grossed more than $1.2 billion at the box office, making it the highest-grossing movie series based on a video game. It is also one of thehighest-grossing horror movie franchisesof all time.
Another live-actionResident Eviladaptation is in the works, this one as a TV series for Netflix. Developed by Andrew Dabb, the series follows Albert Wesker’s twin daughters Jade and Billie Wesker and is set across two different timelines (before and after the zombie apocalypse). Constantin Film, the studio behind the previous movies and the upcoming reboot, is also producing the series. Netflix has not yet set a release date.Resident Evilwill be released in theaters on Sept. 3, 2021.
