The all-new Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City serves as a big screen reboot of the iconic video game franchise, this time actually sticking to the elements of the series that fans have come to know and love over the past twenty years. Despite the commercial success of Paul W.S. Anderson’s six feature films (which grossed over $1.2 billion combined at the global box office), a desire to see something at least somewhat close to the games has been a fan wish for years now. With the new film that reality is here, and with the extensive amount of games that have been made in the series then the potential for sequels to this movie are already there. So what do the cast and crew of Welcome to Raccoon City think of the prospect?
“It’s been kicked around. I think with these things, you always have to wait and see how people respond, et cetera,” director Johannes Roberts tells ComicBook.com in an exclusive interview. “I think that the core belief that permeated this whole movie, making this whole movie and how I directed the cast…was fall in love with the game, fall in love with the game. We’ll put in loads of Easter eggs and stuff, but we don’t need to be identical. We’re not just putting the game on screen, but what I want is I want love from you. So whether people like the movie or don’t like the movie, I want people to feel that it comes from the right place. We have just embraced it all. THat was really what I told everybody to do, and that’s what I would love to do continuing on.”
Where could it go? Roberts has ideas, adding: “I’m obsessed with the fourth game. I love Code: Veronica. I mean, it’s a slightly different universe ish. But Resident Evil 7 is terrifying. There’s so much interesting stuff in the Resident Evil world. And we’ve got to have Chris Redfield punching a boulder at some point. So, there’s a lot that I want to put in. You could use the glove.”
“The only thing that matters is if the movie does well,” Amell said. “So if the movie does well, I think they’ll want a sequel. I know the story ends with a sequel, being teed up. I know that Johannes has talked about Code Veronica, and Resident Evil 4, as things that he would want to adapt. And I would love to continue playing Chris. This was a dream come true for me.”
“That’s a discussion that starts later with this one,” Scodelario added. “I think we really kind of wanted to focus on getting this one right, and finding the balance of survival horror that we haven’t seen in film adaptations of ‘Resident Evil before. So, we kinda have all our resources in the moment into that. And then, shooting during a pandemic, it was sort of really rough and tumble, and we were just trying to get it done. But now, it’s exciting, because we’re seeing the reactions. We’re seeing that people really like it, and I would love to come back. I think Claire’s got so much more to do. She’s not finished at all.”
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is now playing in theaters.