Sony's Resident Evil Reboot Film Finally Unveils Official Title

Resident Evil reboot film finally unveils official title

Sony Pictures and Screen Gems have finally announced the title for director Johannes Roberts’ upcoming Resident Evil reboot which will officially be titled Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City! Starring Kaya Scodelario and Robbie Amell, the film will be adapting the first two original Resident Evil games which will also feature the main characters from said games including Claire Redfield and Chris Redfield. Set to make its debut this coming September 3, the reboot comes after five years since the studio concluded their blockbuster Milla Jovovich-led film series.

Enjoy your stay. @ResidentEvil: #WelcomeToRaccoonCity is only in theaters September 3. pic.twitter.com/DZn28klsJB

— Sony Pictures (@SonyPictures) March 22, 2021

The title was actually first revealed by Roberts during a recent interview with IGN, where he confirmed new details about the newest film adaptation of the hit video game series including its film inspirations. He opened up about the reboot’s new scarier tone and dark atmosphere while also teasing its creepy locations.

“The big thing for this movie is tone. The thing I loved about the games is they were just scary as hell and that is very much what I wanted to,” Roberts said. “That atmosphere — it’s rain, it’s constantly dark, it’s creepy. Raccoon City is kind of this rotten character in the movie and that sort of atmosphere in the games I wanted to put in [the film].”

He added, “We have two very separate locations but we split people off into their worlds. One is more of a siege movie style with the police station, and then you have the mansion which is creepy as f*ck.”

Roberts also went on to named John Carpenter as his main inspiration for Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, citing Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 and The Fog as the two movies that helped him create the whole vibe of the film.

“I’m a huge John Carpenter fan and I really took to that,” Roberts said. “The way he tells these claustrophobic siege movies and I took movies like Assault on Precinct 13 and The Fog and these disparate group of characters coming together under siege, and I took that as my filmic inspiration.”

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is set to be an official origin story to Capcom’s long-running survival horror video game franchise and will be set on an infamous night in Raccoon City in 1998 when the Umbrella Corporation unleashed hell upon the world and it was up to a select group of people to stop them. It has also been confirmed that the upcoming film will definitely be unrelated to Paul W.S. Anderson’s franchise.

The film will be led by Kaya Scodelario (The Maze Runner) as Claire Redfield, Hannah John-Kamen (Ant-Man and the Wasp) as Jill Valentine, Robbie Amell (Upload) as Chris Redfield, Tom Hopper (Black Sails) as Albert Wesker, Avan Jogia (Zombieland: Double Tap) as Leon S. Kennedy, Neal McDonough (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) as William Birkin, and Lily Gao (The Handmaid’s Tale) as Ada Wong. Among the main characters from the video games, only Leon S. Kennedy wasn’t featured in Sony’s first Resident Evil films.

Chad Rook (The Flash), Donal Logue (Sons of Anarchy), and Marina Mazepa have been cast for the roles of Richard Aiken, Chief Brian Irons, and Lisa Trevor, respectively, marking the live-action debuts for the characters.

The movie is directed by Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down) from a screenplay he co-wrote with Greg Russo. It is produced by Robert Kulzer for Constantin Films, who were also the studio behind the first film franchise, with Constantin’s CEO Martin Moskowicz and Davis Film’s Victor Hadida set as executive producers. James Harris from Tea Shop Productions and Hartley Gorenstein are also producing.

Based on Capcom’s hugely popular video games, the Resident Evil movies have earned $1.2 billion worldwide to date, making it the highest-grossing film series to be based on a video game.