Big screen 'Resident Evil' revival will take us back to the beginning in Raccoon City this September

With a new video game on the way (plus a pair of new Netflix series), there’s a lot going on these days in the Resident Evil universe. But for all the buzz, it’s been an eerily silent while since fans feasted their eyes on the last proper big-screen installment in Capcom’s delightfully creepy survival horror movie series.

Thanks to fresh story details and a sooner-than-expected release date, though, that’s about to change. Sony Pictures Entertainment has revealed the still-untitled upcoming Resident Evil movie is getting a head start on this fall’s spooky season, set for a Sept. 3 theatrical release. The first proper big-screen visit to the perennially ill-omened Raccoon City since 2016’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, the new film comes from a new director and a new cast to serve as a reboot of sorts for the long-running early-2000's RE film series from previous franchise director Paul W.S. Anderson and star Milla Jovovich (Alice).

Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down) is on directing duty for the new movie, which stars Kaya Scodelario as Claire Redfield and Robbie Amell as Chris Redfield. SYFY WIRE has confirmed the new film’s story is intended to reveal a previously-untold chapter in the hit horror franchise, unfolding “on a fateful night in Raccoon City in 1998.” Sony is still keeping specific plot details close to the vest, but says the new movie will evolve the overall series canon as an “official origin story of the Resident Evil world.”

With the Redfields on deck for the upcoming movie, things appear to be shifting slightly away from Anderson’s six-film cycle, which with Jovovich’s “Alice” character featured a protagonist unique only to the movies (and not the games). The six previous Resident Evil movies were a huge box office success for Sony, generating an overall global take of $1.2 billion.

Rounding out the new film’s cast are a ton of other RE characters familiar to longtime fans, including Hannah John-Kamen as Jill Valentine, Avan Jogia as Leon Kennedy, Neal McDonough as William Birkin, Donal Logue as Chief Brian Irons, Tom Hopper as Albert Wesker, and Lily Gao as Ada Wong. Roberts also wrote the screenplay for the new film, which is produced by Robert Kulzer, James Harris and Hartley Gorenstein.

Even though September will be here before you know it, you don’t have to wait that long to get your next fix from the Resident Evil franchise, which is marking its 25th anniversary this year. Also inbound in the months ahead is Resident Evil Village, the eighth mainline RE game coming May 7 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC; as well as a pair of new Netflix projects. The 3D CGI animated series Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness is set to hit the streaming platform later this year, with a new live-action series from Supernatural EP Andrew Dabb also on the near horizon.