The history of adapting video games into movies and TV shows is a troubled one.
Many of the efforts have proven divisive and the Resident Evil franchise certainly hasn’t been safe from criticism.
Some of the games are among the most iconic and beloved ever made, so audiences were intrigued but sceptical when it was announced Andrew Dabb would be bringing a show to Netflix.
The eight-episode American action horror premiered back in July and used the games as its backstory while ushering in new characters and other deviations.
However, those who enjoyed it will be disappointed to learn that Netflix has cancelled Resident Evil.
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Resident Evil cancelled by Netflix
Deadline reported the cancellation news on Friday, August 26th 2022.
Although Netflix is yet to offer a statement regarding the reason behind the renewal, it’s likely due to a relatively underwhelming performance and Deadline notes that the series debuted at No. 2 with 72.7 million hours viewed.
While this doesn’t at all make the show a failure, it’s worth addressing that the series left the Netflix Top 10 category entirely in its third week.
Ambitious projects like Resident Evil are expensive to produce so understandably rely on a strong performance to get greenlit for further seasons. Taking this into consideration, it’s likely that the viewership didn’t give the streamer confidence to go ahead with future episodes.
Not only that, but 55% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and 27% from audiences suggest that there would be many audiences who watched season 1 but didn’t enjoy it enough to watch more in the event of renewal.
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Audiences react on Twitter
A number of viewers have already taken the time to react to the announcement on Twitter.
‘Season one is Resident Evil 101’
The series showrunner recently spoke with Bloody Disgusting about his hopes for the future:
“The Wesker girls have started to uncover this mystery. But as fans of the games know, that mystery gets really crazy quick. What I call season one is Resident Evil 101. There are some zombies and some monsters, but we’re not into Uroboros, plant monster, or giant vampire territory yet, but we’re going to get there.”
He added: “The idea is as we move forward, more elements from the games, both creatures, and some legacy characters will start to be incorporated.”
However, this was before the cancellation was announced, so this is simply a tease of what may have been.
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