Resident Evil has been canceled after just one season by Netflix, following disappointing viewership and extremely divisive reviews.
The Resident Evil franchise has seen a wealth of live-action adaptations over the last two decades. After several feature-length Resident Evil adventures starring Milla Jovovich, the franchise spawned Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City, a reboot in 2021.
In a further attempt to expand Resident Evil’s live-action appeal, Netflix released the first season of its own show set in a separate universe.
Now, Netflix has reportedly canceled Resident Evil after the show’s concerningly negative reception.
Resident Evil cast to work on new Netflix projects amid cancelation
Netflix has decided to scrap their plans for Resident Evil season two, according to Deadline. Debuting alongside the latest season of Stranger Things, the live-action series “debuted at No. 2 with an OK 72.7 million hours viewed.”
However, Deadline noted that the show experienced a significant drop a week after its release: “It did not deliver the big Week 2 bump one would like to see for a new series as word of mouth spreads.”
The show was “raking in 73.3M hours viewed in its second week for a No. 3 finish before dropping precipitously and falling out of the Top 10 after only three weeks.”
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Not shocked at all. As a huge fan of the games, was looking forward to this, got 30 mins in to episode 1, sacked it off. One of the worst TV series ever.
— Shaun Gorman (@Shaun_G36) August 26, 2022
Good the show wasn't even anything like resident evil and they got Wesker looking like blade pic.twitter.com/7HzotZqoqs
— Gangster Enieb (@GangsterEnieb) August 26, 2022
The show’s audience have shared their thoughts on its cancelation too, with @shaun_g36 declaring he is “not shocked at all. As a huge fan of the games, was looking forward to this, got 30 mins into episode 1, sacked it off.” The frustrated also remarked that it was “one of the worst TV series ever.”
Many viewers were especially critical of Lance Reddick’s portrayal of franchise villain Albert Wesker. Notably, long-time players felt that the Netflix show’s version was derivative of Marvel’s Blade.
Despite the show’s cancelation, it has been reported that Netflix already have plans to utilize the show’s ensemble cast in unrelated projects.
Specifically, Paola Núñez, who is set to appear in Netflix’s upcoming show Fall of the House of Usher, will also star in Latin America feature Fuga De Reinas.
Resident Evil season one is currently streaming on Netflix.
