WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, now streaming on Netflix.
Netflix's Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness continues Capcom's line of CG features set within the world of its popular survival-horror video game series. Starring franchise mainstays Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield on a new adventure, the anime series includes several prominent nods to the video game source material, cementing Infinite Darkness' place in the game series' overall canon.
Here are the biggest nods Infinite Darkness makes towards the wider Resident Evil mythos over the course of its four-episode run.
Infinite Darkness is set in 2006, between the events of 2005's Resident Evil 4 and 2009's Resident Evil 5, Leon has since become a celebrated Secret Service operative for his actions rescuing President Graham's daughter Ashley from a bioweapons-using cult in Spain. The anime marks Leon's first meeting with Claire since the events of 2008's Resident Evil: Degeneration, with the film set in November 2005. Prior to this, both characters had narrowly escaped Raccoon City together in the classic 1998 video game Resident Evil 2, as undead hordes swarmed the city before it was destroyed altogether by a tactical nuclear strike to prevent the outbreak from spreading further.
While Ashley Graham herself is absent from Infinite Darkness, the series makes it clear that the sitting President is the same one from Resident Evil 4, as he has a picture of Ashley in the Oval Office. The President's painful memories of his family being targeted in Europe lead him to consider drastic actions that would put the United States closer to war with China over bioweapons, but also means President Graham trusting Leon implicitly for saving his daughter. This proves key when Leon is able to convince President Graham to stand down from any further military escalation against China when he discovers that the tension between the two countries is fabricated by a traitor in the executive cabinet.
One of the bigger nods to the games comes at the very end of the series, as the machinations of Graham's rogue Secretary of Defense Wilson face further scrutiny. Wilson quietly had backdoor dealings with the global conglomerate Tricell, Inc., with the pharmaceutical company acquiring the Umbrella Corporation's research on bioweapons after entering an alliance with Albert Wesker. In the final moments of Infinite Darkness, Wilson is at Tricell's mercy after the grievous wounds he endured at the hands of his own bioweapon. It is implied that the experiments Wilson had overseen to stoke tensions with China will lead to further investigation by Tricell, culminating with the incident in Africa as depicted in Resident Evil 5 when their sinister activities are exposed.
Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness provides a look at how Leon was received upon returning stateside and how the events of Resident Evil 4 shaped President Graham moving forward. And while Leon and Claire team up to save the day and prevent a third World War III from breaking out, the anime series quietly sets up the events of Resident Evil 5 as Tricell takes their insidious plot to a different corner of the world that will lead to a final showdown against Wesker and his corporate benefactors.
Directed by Eiichiro Hasumi, Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness stars Nick Apostolides as Leon S. Kennedy, Stephanie Panisello as Claire Redfield, Ray Chase as Jason, Jona Xiao as Shen May, Billy Kametz as Patrick, Joe J. Thomas as Graham, Doug Stone as Wilson and Brad Venable as Ryan. The series is available to stream now on Netflix.
