Resident Evil has two kinds of films. Capcom’s CG films (Degeneration, Damnation, Vendetta, Death Island and the Infinite Darkness series) are part of the games’ story: what happens in them counts. The live-action ones (Paul W. S. Anderson’s series, Welcome to Raccoon City, the Netflix series and 2026’s Resident Evil) are separate continuities: they use names and places from the games but tell another story. On this page each entry says which one it belongs to.
Resident Evil (2026)
The eighth live-action film and the best reviewed of them all. It is nobody’s sequel: it is a reboot with an original story and no characters from the games. In Latin America it was released as Resident Evil: Noche cero.
Credits
- Director: Zach Cregger (Barbarian, Weapons). Writers: Cregger and Shay Hatten.
- Production: Columbia Pictures, Constantin Film, Davis Films, Subconscious, Vertigo Entertainment and PlayStation Productions; distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing.
- Filming: Prague and Litoměřice (Czechia), October 2025 to January 2026.
- Release: premiere on 15 September 2026 in Los Angeles; in cinemas in the United States, Mexico, Spain and the UK on 18 September 2026. Japan gets it on 9 October according to Wikipedia, a date not confirmed in its original source.
- Runtime: 94 minutes (Fandom says 95). Rating: R in the United States.
- Budget: the sources disagree: $75 million according to Variety, $80 million according to Collider.
After Welcome to Raccoon City flopped and Netflix cancelled its series, Constantin planned another reboot. Cregger came on board in January 2025 with PlayStation Productions and Sony (Columbia) won the bidding in March 2025. Cregger said he had never seen the earlier films and was making it “for fans of the games, not the movies”.
Cast
- Austin Abrams — Bryan Hodukavich, a medical courier and the lead.
- Zach Cherry, Paul Walter Hauser and Will Merrick — Carl, Paul and Dave, Umbrella scientists.
- Kali Reis — Maxine, an Umbrella security operative (the part was written for a man).
- Johnno Wilson — Wilson, a sheriff’s deputy.
- Emily Piggford — Dr. Maria Stokes, who gives Bryan the job.
- Andrea Miltnerová — the pedestrian Bryan runs over.
- Sara Paxton — the voice of Michelle, Bryan’s pregnant girlfriend.
- Zach Cregger — a voice on the hospital intercom.
Plot
Warning: from here on the whole film is told, ending included.
One winter night, Bryan takes a last-minute job that pays double: delivering a medical package, a “stabiliser”, to Raccoon City General Hospital, in the snowy mountains of Colorado. While arguing on the phone with Michelle, who is pregnant (he is scared of becoming a father), he hits a woman walking on the road.
Deputy Wilson takes the injured woman in his cruiser, which ends up wrecked: Wilson dead and the woman gone. She comes back for Bryan, who barely brings her down with Wilson’s pistol. At a farm he kills a dog with tentacles in its snout, picks up a shotgun and kills the woman and the infected farmer, but tentacles burst from the bodies and fuse them into one. In a blocked tunnel, an infected little girl bites his forearm: that bite dooms him.
The woman, now an amalgam of many bodies, catches up with him; Paul and Maxine, from Umbrella, drive it off and take him into the city. Paul tells him Umbrella made a serum for the US government that turns living things into “hyper-evolved” versions of themselves; a lab accident caused the outbreak, and the researchers holed up on the hospital’s top floor need his package to make a cure before the National Guard arrives.
In Raccoon City, Maxine is cut in half and tentacles drag Paul away (Bryan, firing at them, hits him instead). Chased by the amalgam, Bryan goes through the sewers, where an obese monster bursts into mutant rats, and in the hospital car park records a farewell for Michelle. A voice on the intercom guides him; who is speaking is unclear (Wikipedia and Fandom: an unnamed researcher voiced by Cregger; the Spanish Wikipedia: Carl). In the lift an acid-vomiting mutant, the Puker, attacks him, and Bryan turns that acid on the amalgam. He crosses a maternity ward full of red sacs that burst open and, on a half-collapsed sky-bridge, spends his last bullet on the barricade holding back a mass of mutants, who fall on the amalgam and die with it.
Bryan delivers the package, but the infection takes over: appendages burst from his body and kill the scientists while he begs for the cure. The last one (Dave, per Fandom) reaches him with the syringe, but Bryan fully turns, tears the man’s arm off and the cure falls from the building. Now a monster, he roars under the spotlights of the National Guard helicopters. Cut to black: Bryan does not survive as a human and the outbreak is not stopped. There is no post-credits scene.
Continuity: what it takes from the games
It is a reboot and not part of the games’ story, nor of the Anderson films or Welcome to Raccoon City. Cregger: “I’m not going to tell Leon’s story, because Leon’s story is told in the games.” Neither Leon nor any other character from the saga appears or is named. What it does take:
- Raccoon City and Umbrella. Cregger describes it as a story “on the sidelines” of Resident Evil 2’s night, the Raccoon City outbreak, with “a couple of little shifts”. The biggest is the date: it is set in the present (Fandom says winter 2026), not in September 1998. In the games, a missile wiped out the city on 1 October 1998 (the report on the incident) and in 2026 Resident Evil Requiem goes back to its walled ruins in chapter 9; the film, instead, shows a living city that falls that night.
- The virus. On screen it is an Umbrella serum; Cregger calls it the t-Virus in an interview, but according to JoBlo the name is never said in the film.
- Creatures. Infected dogs and rats and a relentless stalker, the amalgam, which the press compares to Nemesis and Mr. X. JoBlo compares the tentacles to RE4’s Plagas and the Puker to RE7’s Molded.
- Nods. A typewriter in a safe room, green herbs and first aid spray (Cregger says RE4 is “probably” the game he played the most and that he copied its healing items “exactly”), “Heavy Field” shotgun shells, a diamond-suit lock and an opening crash that recalls the truck in the RE2 remake.
- What is missing. No police station (the R.P.D., which Requiem walks through in chapter 10), no S.T.A.R.S., no Arklay mansion, no G-Virus.
Reception and box office
- Critics: 96% on Rotten Tomatoes (263 reviews) and 79/100 on Metacritic (51 critics) as of 26 September 2026. It is the franchise’s best reviewed film and, according to Wikipedia, the best reviewed video game adaptation on both sites. CinemaScore: B+, the series’ highest grade (Deadline’s figure, as cited by Wikipedia).
- What landed: Abrams’ humour as an everyman and a structure that plays like a video game; Time Out and AP were cooler on the plot and the final stretch.
- Box office (Box Office Mojo, 26 September 2026): $80.2 million in the United States and $126.6 million worldwide. Its $60.2 million US opening weekend is the franchise’s best opening.
Will there be a sequel?
As of 26 September 2026 none has been announced. Before release, Cregger said the film “was designed to be a one-off”, though “there are always ideas percolating”.
The CG films (the games’ story)
Capcom makes them and they are part of the official story: they fill the years between games, above all in Leon’s and Chris’s lives. They are listed by in-universe date, not by release.
Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008)
A 96-minute CG film directed by Makoto Kamiya (Digital Frontier), released in Japan in October 2008 (on the 17th according to Wikipedia, the 18th according to Fandom). Set in November 2005, between RE4 and RE5. A t-Virus attack and a crashed airliner turn Harvardville Airport into a zombie outbreak. Claire Redfield, who works for TerraSave, is trapped with Senator Ron Davis, and federal agent Leon S. Kennedy goes in with SRT officers Angela Miller and Greg Glenn. The trail leads to the lab of the pharmaceutical company WilPharma, where Curtis Miller, Angela’s brother, who lost his family in Raccoon City and blames the government for covering it up, injects himself with the G-Virus and mutates; Leon kills him. The real culprit is Frederic Downing, a former Umbrella scientist who stole the viruses before the city’s destruction and staged the attacks to sell them. What it adds: Leon and Claire together for the first time since RE2, and an epilogue in which Tricell buys WilPharma and takes the G-Virus samples, which sets up RE5.
Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness (2021)
A Netflix CG miniseries, four episodes of 25 to 28 minutes, released on 8 July 2021 and directed by Eiichirō Hasumi. Set in 2006, still before RE5. After a hacking incident at the White House, some of the staff turn into zombies. Leon travels by submarine toward China with agents Jason and Shen May, and rat-like B.O.W.s sink the submarine. Meanwhile Claire, with TerraSave in the fictional country of Penamstan, follows a refugee child’s drawing to the “Mad Dogs”, a US unit infected in 2000 and kept in line with drugs by Defense Secretary Wilson, who wants to breed super-soldiers. Jason, a survivor of that unit, mutates, kills Shen May and infects Wilson before Leon and Claire stop him. What it adds: the US government itself playing with bio-weapons, and a Leon who keeps the evidence to use as leverage; Wilson survives in hiding thanks to Tricell inhibitors.
Resident Evil: Damnation (2012)
A 100-minute CG film, again by Makoto Kamiya, released in Japan on 27 October 2012. Set in 2011, between RE5 and RE6. Leon, now a DSO agent, infiltrates the Eastern Slav Republic to check whether bio-weapons are being used in its civil war, and disobeys the order to pull out. Alexander “Buddy” Kozachenko, a rebel leader, has implanted himself with a dominant Plaga that lets him command Lickers against President Svetlana Belikova, who answers with Tyrants. Ada Wong is there to steal a Plaga sample, and Ingrid Hunnigan appears too. Leon and Buddy defeat the Tyrants with a tank and a Russian–American intervention topples Belikova; Leon does not kill Buddy but shoots his spine to cut the Plaga’s control. What it adds: what became of Las Plagas after RE4 and RE5, turned into a weapon of war, and a Leon who already acts on his own; Fandom counts it as a sequel to Degeneration.
Resident Evil: Vendetta (2017)
A 97-minute CG film directed by Takanori Tsujimoto (Marza Animation Planet), released in Japan on 27 May 2017. Set in 2014, a year after RE6 and before RE7. The BSAA’s Chris Redfield hunts Glenn Arias, an ex-CIA agent turned arms dealer whose family died in a US drone strike on his wedding day. Arias attacks the lab of Professor Rebecca Chambers, who is studying his “A-Virus” (a dormant virus that activates on command, with its own vaccine), and kidnaps her to restage his wedding. Chris recruits a burnt-out Leon; together they stop a gas attack on New York, kill Arias and the Tyrant that Diego Gomez merges into, cure Rebecca and spread the antidote over the city. What it adds: Chris and Leon together after RE6, Rebecca’s return as a scientist and a new virus; Maria Gomez survives, leading into Death Island.
Resident Evil: Death Island (2023)
A 91-minute CG film directed by Eiichirō Hasumi, released on 22 June 2023 in Singapore and on 7 July in Japan. Set in 2015, two years before RE7, with a prologue in 1998 Raccoon City. There, Dylan Blake, a mercenary hired by Umbrella, is ordered to kill his own infected unit. In 2015 he runs Arias’s organisation and, with Maria Gomez, uses mosquito-like drones on Alcatraz to inject an advanced t-Virus strain. Leon (hunting a kidnapped DARPA engineer), Chris, Jill Valentine (still scarred by Wesker’s mind control in RE5), Claire and Rebecca converge on the island; Rebecca makes a vaccine, Leon kills Maria and, when Dylan merges with a B.O.W., they finish him by turning his own drones on him and with explosives. What it adds: it is the first CG film to bring the five classic heroes together, and the last one before the jump to RE7.
Welcome to Raccoon City and the Netflix series
Two live-action attempts between Anderson and Cregger. Neither is part of the games’ story.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)
A 107-minute film written and directed by Johannes Roberts, released on 24 November 2021 in the United States. It was the first reboot: it is set in 1998 and merges RE1 and RE2 into a single night. Claire Redfield returns to Raccoon City, where she and her brother Chris grew up in an orphanage that Umbrella’s William Birkin used for experiments on children (Lisa Trevor among them). As the outbreak spreads, S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team (Chris, Jill, Wesker, Brad and Richard) goes to the Spencer Mansion, while Claire and rookie Leon S. Kennedy hold out in the police station with Chief Irons. Wesker tries to steal Birkin’s virus for another master, Birkin injects himself with the G-Virus and mutates, and the heroes escape by train with Sherry Birkin as Umbrella destroys the city; Leon finishes Birkin with a rocket launcher. In the credits scene, Ada Wong hands a living Wesker a pair of sunglasses. Continuity: its own. The planned sequel (Code: Veronica, then RE4) never happened and the 2026 film took its place. It grossed $42 million on a $25 million budget. If the orphanage rings a bell, in Requiem the Raccoon City Orphanage is also an Umbrella lab full of children (chapter 11), but it is a different story.
Resident Evil (Netflix, 2022)
An eight-episode series created by Andrew Dabb, released on 14 July 2022 and cancelled after one season on 26 August 2022. Continuity: its own, but it uses the games’ story as backstory: Raccoon City was destroyed in 1998, Wesker died in 2009 (RE5) and Umbrella rebuilt under Evelyn Marcus, daughter of James Marcus. It runs on two timelines. In 2022, twins Jade and Billie, daughters of Albert Wesker (Lance Reddick), one of several Wesker clones, move to New Raccoon City, Umbrella’s company town in South Africa, and uncover Umbrella’s secrets; the t-Virus outbreak that follows ends civilisation. In 2036, 300 million survivors live among six billion infected and Umbrella hunts the adult Jade.
Paul W. S. Anderson’s series (2002–2016)
Six Constantin Film productions (the company has held the live-action rights since 1997): four directed by Paul W. S. Anderson and the other two written by him. Critics panned all of them (between 18% and 38% on Rotten Tomatoes), but all of them made money.
Continuity: its own; none of the six is part of the games’ story.
How it departs from the games. Its lead is Alice (Milla Jovovich), a character who does not exist in the games: an Umbrella security operative whom the t-Virus turns superhuman and who, in the last film, turns out to be a clone of Alicia Marcus, daughter of Umbrella’s founder. The films take names (Umbrella, the Red Queen, Raccoon City, the t-Virus, Nemesis, Jill, Claire, Chris, Wesker, Leon, Ada, Barry, the Lickers) but tell their own story, which grows from one underground lab into a worldwide zombie apocalypse; the game characters are supporting cast. The first was conceived as a prequel to the games, but the sequels went their own way.
Resident Evil (2002)
Directed by Anderson. A saboteur releases the t-Virus in the Hive, Umbrella’s lab under Raccoon City, and the Red Queen AI seals it and kills the staff. An amnesiac Alice goes in with police officer Matt Addison and an Umbrella commando team; only she and Matt get out, straight into Umbrella’s hands, and Alice wakes up in a ruined city. It borrows from RE1 and RE2.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
Directed by Alexander Witt. The outbreak reaches Raccoon City, Umbrella seals it off, and Alice, Jill Valentine and Carlos Olivera look for a scientist’s daughter in exchange for a way out, hunted by Nemesis (who turns out to be Matt). A nuclear strike wipes out the city. It adapts RE3.
Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)
Directed by Russell Mulcahy. Years later the t-Virus has turned the world into a desert. Alice joins Claire Redfield’s convoy heading for Alaska and kills Dr. Isaacs, who was cloning Alice and has become a Tyrant; at the end she declares war on Albert Wesker, Umbrella’s chairman.
Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)
Directed by Anderson, the first in 3D. Wesker strips Alice of her powers; she finds Claire in Alaska and Chris Redfield in a Los Angeles prison besieged by zombies; the “Arcadia” haven turns out to be an Umbrella trap and they beat Wesker. It ends with a mind-controlled Jill leading an assault. It takes Chris, Wesker and the controlled Jill from RE5.
Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
Directed by Anderson. Alice escapes an underwater Umbrella base full of simulated cities, helped by Ada Wong and a rescue team with Leon, Barry Burton and Luther West, and frees Jill. The Red Queen now runs Umbrella and wants humanity gone.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016)
Directed by Anderson, released in Japan in 2016 and in the United States in 2017. Alice goes back to the Hive for an airborne antivirus, learns she is a clone of Alicia Marcus, kills Isaacs and Wesker and releases the antivirus.
Which ones matter for the games’ story
Only the CG films. In in-universe order, with the game before and after each (every other date is in the timeline and the full thread in the main story):
- Degeneration (November 2005): after RE4 (2004) and Revelations (2005); before RE5 (2009).
- Infinite Darkness (2006): after Degeneration; before RE5.
- Damnation (2011): after RE5; before RE6 (2012–2013).
- Vendetta (2014): after RE6; before RE7 (2017).
- Death Island (2015): after Vendetta; before RE7, which is followed by Village and Requiem.