It looks like we might be seeing Avan Jogia returning as Leon S. Kennedy to save the president’s daughter ifResident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon Cityends up getting a sequel. Set to premiere in theaters this month, the new movie serves as a fresh reboot of theResident Evilseries, bearing no connection to the prior installments starring Milla Jovovich. As is apparent from the trailer, it’s more faithful to the video games featuring characters and events fromResident Evil 1 & 2.
The movie’s writer-director,Johannes Roberts, already has an idea of where he wants to take this series ifWelcome to Raccoon Cityperforms well enough to get that sequel greenlight. In a new interview with SFX, he addressed this new movie and the potential of where the story could go next. Sticking with the game plan of relying on the video games for inspiration, Roberts teases that the events ofResident Evil 4could get worked intoWelcome to Raccoon City 2.
“I could very much see [Resident Evil 4] becoming part of the next installment. There’s a lot of interesting lore and tiny details that we have brought into this movie, but would be amazing to expand on. There are characters that we didn’t use in this game that we would love to expand upon in the next movie. There’s also a different side ofResident EvilwithVillageandResident Evil 7, where it’s a much darker, more horrific world.”
Resident Evil 4featuresLeon Kennedyas the playable character, this time hired to save the president’s daughter Ashley, so it would be interesting to see if that’s the part that makes it into the movie. By mentioningResident Evil 4alongside the more recent seventh and eighth installments of the main game series, Johannes Roberts seems to be suggesting that elements from all of these games could be rolled together to help form the story ofResident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City 2.
It’s worth pointing out that Roberts also mentions unused characters that didn’t make it into the first movie that could still be featured and expanded upon in the sequel.Barry Burton, a fan favorite who played a big role in the original video game, is noticeably absent from the trailers. The same can be said for Rebecca Chambers, another character who was featured heavily in the original game before getting her own spinoff inResident Evil 0. Perhaps they could be among the characters Roberts was referring to.
Johannes Roberts also explained his decision to make the newResident Evilmovie more like the original games with a focus on more horror and less action. He describesWelcome to Raccoon Cityas a “scary, standalone movie that should really appeal to a broad audience,” hoping that this will hook the more mainstream filmgoers not privy to the video games. He also notes that there’s been a change to the “perception” that gamers don’t go out to the movies, which they obviously do, hence the addition of so many references and Easter eggs about the games. This comes to us fromGamesRadar.
