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Welcome to Raccoon City Director Explains Why it is a Resident Evil Reboot


The new Resident Evil movie Welcome to Raccoon City will finally hit theaters this November and we just got the first photos from the highly anticipated film. Interestingly, the upcoming adaptation of the Capcom video games is noted for not having Milla Jovovich's Alice, who was created for the previous film franchise. So does this mean those movies are getting a reboot? Director Johannes Roberts confirms that this is the case.

We had already seen the first images from Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City and it confirms that all the video game characters have been recast. For instance, Leon S. Kennedy will now be played by Avan Jogia, who takes over the role originally played by Oded Fehr in the previous movies.

Although Welcome to Raccoon City is clearly a reboot, Roberts admits in an email sent to IGN that he was a huge fan of the previous movies.

"I actually love the first movie so much," Roberts wrote. "I think it's great. And Milla just created such an iconic character. But it was its own thing. It wasn't really Resident Evil as I knew it - the previous movies never captured the game and the feelings I got when playing the game (that's not a criticism I think it just went in a different direction)."

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Credit: Screen Gems

Roberts continued by stating he wanted to focus on what made Resident Evil such an effective game franchise.

"I wanted to go back to the horror of it all. I wanted scares and atmosphere rather than full-on action," he wrote. "I think fans of the game felt the same - they wanted to see the iconic characters and locations and feel that the movie was more in line with the Resident Evil game world so that's really why we chose to go in that direction."

We're loving the idea that Welcome to Raccoon City is going to be a real horror movie. Needless to say, we can't wait to see it later this year.

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City will also star Kaya Scodelario, Robbie Amell, Hannah John-Kamen, Richard Aiken, Marina Mazepa, Tom Hopper, Lily Gao, Neal McDonough, and Donal Logue. The film is scheduled to premiere on November 24, 2021.

Related: Resident Evil Movie Welcome to Raccoon City Drops First Look at Leon, Claire, Jill, and More

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