With the recent release of Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil is experiencing a bit of a resurgence, especially with Netflix having announced a new animated film for the franchise. Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, arriving on Netflix July 8, is actually the latest release in the franchise's line of animated films. Here's everything you need to know about them to hit the ground running for Infinite Darkness.
The first of these animated movies is Resident Evil: Degeneration. Released in 2008, the movie is set seven years after the Raccoon City outbreak. This film also marks the first time that leading characters Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield would fight together since Resident Evil 2 in 1998. Together, they must investigate and try to stop a T-virus outbreak after a plane crash lands at Harvardville Airport. To complicate matters, there are parties involved that have a special interest in seeing that the T-virus and G-virus are both unleashed on the world.
The second animated movie is 2012's Resident Evil: Damnation, which follows Leon to a war-ridden Eastern Slav Republic to investigate the usage of Bio-Organic Weapons (BOWs). After being told the U.S. is to pull all support from the country, Leon refuses to leave until the matter of the BOWs is dealt with. After Leon is captured by rebel fighters, he must try to stop their leader from using the Plagas to get revenge against a corrupt government while also trying not to get blown up as the city is bombed. He also meets Ada Wong of Resident Evil 4, who plays a major role in stopping an outbreak of Plaga. This movie acts as a prequel to Resident Evil 6 and features clips from the game during the end credits.
The third feature-length film released was Resident Evil: Vendetta from 2017. Chris Redfield takes the lead as he travels to Mexico to try and capture wanted terrorist Glenn Arias, who is out for revenge against the U.S. government for orchestrating a drone attack at his wedding. It's up to Chris to stop Arias from releasing a new strain of virus in the U.S. and save the only person capable of creating the vaccine for it, with some help from Leon. Vendetta is set between Resident Evil 6 and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, and also refers to the Plagas from Damnation.
While they feature the same characters as the game franchise, these films aren't really adaptations. Rather, they are supplemental material for avid fans of the series in the way of Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children. The only movie that would actually have some impact on the games' events would be Damnation as it is a prequel to RE6, which came out a few weeks before the movie. None of the movies are required watching, but they do expand on the in-game universe and the characters within that universe.
Hopefully, the new Netflix movie continues to add new information to the already vast and intricate world of Resident Evil. This new entry to the franchise will have Claire and Leon once again coming together to dig deep into a massive coverup. Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness is set to release on July 8, with a live-action movie, Welcome to Raccoon City, coming out this September. The live-action film will act as a reboot to the film franchise and begin with the origins of what happened in Raccoon City.
