Showrunner Andrew Dabb sets up the central mystery of his series, which is split between two timelines.
There are certain elements that have come to define theResident Evilvideo games.
Horror, of course.
Ella Balinska stars as Jade Wesker, daughter of Albert Wesker, in Netflix’s ‘Resident Evil’ series.MARCOS CRUZ/NETFLIX
I think everybody’s been cloned at this point, but some of that is just crazy fun."
Underneath that level of debauchery is always some kind of puzzle box mystery to solve.
That is also true ofResident Evil, the live-action series.
Ahad Raza Mir as Arj, Jade Wesker’s husband, in Netflix’s ‘Resident Evil.'.NETFLIX
And it starts with Jade Wesker.
Dabb and his writers’ room didn’t set out to adapt oneResident Evilgame specifically.
“They’ve managed to carve out some civilization.
Ella Balinska’s Jade Wesker in a shot from Netflix’s ‘Resident Evil’ that mimics the first-person style of the video games.NETFLIX
They may not be the lives they had before.
In fact, I can guarantee they are not.”
In the first episode, directed by Bronwen Hughes, Jade is someone very much haunted by her past.
Lance Reddick and Paola Nuñez star as Albert Wesker and Evelyn Marcus in Netflix’s ‘Resident Evil.'.NETFLIX
“She’s studying them.
She’s trying to learn how they operate.
This is a new organism.
Tamara Smart stars in ‘Resident Evil’ as a younger version of Jade Wesker, who moved to New Raccoon City with her sister Billie (Siena Agudong).NETFLIX
Our zombies are not the risen dead.
They’re infected by a virus.
All of us have had a crash course in viruses the last few years.
A staple of the ‘Resident Evil’ franchise, a T-virus-infected Doberman stares down Jade and Billie in the Netflix live-action series.NETFLIX
It evolves and it has its own agenda.”
Threats now include hordes of infected and also the occasional kaiju-sized mutant caterpillar.
So, how did humanity get to this point?
Connor Gosatti plays Simon, a high school teen who’s lived at New Raccoon City all his life in Netflix’s ‘Resident Evil.'.MARCOS CRUZ/NETFLIX
Dabb sets the stage: “We are now essentially 20-plus years from the first Raccoon City.
This miracle med is designed to cure various forms of mental ailments, from depression to OCD.
But patients should read the fine print, because the T-virus is included in the side effects.
Siena Agudong stars as Billie Wesker in Netflix’s ‘Resident Evil.'.NETFLIX
It’s just one piece of the puzzle.
“But whenever you’re messing with the T-virus, it usually never goes well.”
Other jigsaw pieces include the presence of Wesker, who died during the events of the game.
(Dabb previously teased how that plays into the show.)
Jade and Billie, clearly, also have something to do with it.
Past trailers have shown that Wesker keeps vials of their blood in his lab.
Dabb cannot say yet.
“Young Jade isyoung,” Dabb says.
Because of how she was brought up, she put up a lot of walls.
Jade is someone who walks around in a suit of armor.”
Unlike Jade, Billie is more vulnerable to the perils of teen social life.
This is a character that cares deeply about people and about animals.
She’s someone who is vegan and someone who supports PETA.
She’s the kind of person who doesn’t step on an ant.
She takes it outside."
One photo fromResident Evilshows Billie interacting with a caterpillar.
Is this the same caterpillar that later becomes the gargantuan caterpillar attacking Jade in 2036?
“The hope is they build, one off the other,” Dabb explains of the two controls.
“The idea is you’ll see things in the future story line.
You’re like, ‘Wait!
How did that happen?’
And then that episode, or a couple of episodes later, you’ll get the answer.
In some ways, the future story line itself is a mystery.
How did people get here?
How did these relationships change?
And it’s all explained, but it’s explained in a way that we’ve jigsawed it together.
