Writer/director Johannes Roberts has based the November 24th release Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, his reboot of the Resident Evil film franchise, directly on the first two Resident Evil video games – but fans have noticed that the trailer also contains an Easter egg reference to the fourth game in the series, Resident Evil: Code Veronica. In an interview with SFX Magazine (as shared by Games Radar), Roberts said he put that nod to Code Veronica in his movie because “I am obsessed with the fourth game.” He continued,
I could very much see that becoming part of the next installment. There’s a lot of interesting lore and tiny details that we have brought into this movie, but would be amazing to expand on. There are characters that we didn’t use in this game that we would love to expand upon in the next movie.”
Indicating that he would be interested in sticking with the new series of Resident Evil films for a while, Roberts also mentioned that there’s a possibility of elements from Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil Village being added into future movies:
There’s also a different side of Resident Evil with Village and Resident Evil 7, where it’s a much darker, more horrific world. It would be great to look into that side of things as well. There’s definitely been conversations. We’ve really created some iconic characters with Chris, Claire, Wesker, and Leon. Hopefully it’s the beginning of a whole new chapter.”
My familiarity with Resident Evil dead-ends at the third game, I never played any of them beyond that, so when elements from the rest of the game series are in movies I won’t even recognize them. But I’m sure a lot of fans will be happy to see them.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City has the following synopsis:
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 film stars Kaya Scodelario as Claire Redfield, Avan Jogia as Leon Kennedy, Robbie Amell as Chris Redfield, Tom Hopper as Albert Wesker, Hannah John-Kamen as Jill Valentine, Neal McDonough as William Birkin, Donal Logue as Chief Brian Irons, Chad Rook as Richard Aiken, Lily Gao as Ada Wong, Nathan Dale as Brad Vickers, and Marina Mazepa as Lisa Trevor.
The Motion Picture Association has given Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City an R rating for strong violence and gore, and language throughout.