Resident Evil Has Set A Surprising Record On Netflix
The new Resident Evil series has left fans divided on the merits of the series being enjoyable. However, the show has achieved a surprising record recently.
Over the last nearly three decades, Resident Evil has been a juggernaut of a franchise. The original Capcom and PlayStation third-person shooter game launched in 1996 and has since spawned off into the entertainment world in multiple other ways including more games, novels, movies, and now a binge-worthy scripted TV series. Landing on Netflix in the middle of July, the eight-episode season has been drawing in fans of the long-running franchise and bringing the post-apocalyptic story to an entirely new audience.
Fans are absolutely loving the new series. While it may be more of a challenge to dethrone Stranger Things from its record-breaking fourth season numbers, Resident Evil has been hoofing it over the last few weeks. In its first four days on the streamer, the zombie-based series drew in 858 million minutes of views from its fan base both new and old.
According to the Nielsen streaming rankings, for the week of July 11-17, Resident Evil landed in third place when it came to the most number of minutes watched. As a surprise to no one, Stranger Things was well above the rest with 2.95 billion minutes viewed while Prime Video’s Chris Pratt-led Navy SEAL-based series The Terminal List pulled slightly ahead of Resident Evil with 887 million minutes viewed. Tagging just behind in fourth place was another Prime Video fan favorite, The Boys, with 828 million minutes viewed.
Andrew Dabb, who holds credits writing for the hit CW series Supernatural, brought the Resident Evil series into development, standing with it every step of the way. Leading the cast is Lance Reddick who stars as the clones of Albert Wesker, Ella Balinska, and Adeline Rudolph as Wesker’s kids, Tamara Smart and Siena Agudong as the younger versions of the daughters, and Paola Núñez as James Marcus’s daughter Evelyn. The recurring cast includes the likes of Anthony Oseyemi, Connor Gosatti, Ahad Raza Mir, Pedro de Tavira Egurrola, Ella Zieglmeier, Turlough Convery, and Emily Child. Hopping between two separate timelines, the series swaps between the present and 14 years into the future to tell its story.
The Resident Evil franchise received an animated telling last year with a Netflix production titled Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness. That project chose to fill in the gap in the story between Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5. Taking place in 2006, audiences watched as the White House faced down zombies following a mysterious hacking incident. 2021 also brought fans the Johannes Roberts-helmed feature-length film, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. The action-packed flick performed well with viewers who were ready to feast their eyes on what would be the seventh installment in the franchise’s feature-length productions.
Prior to Welcome to Raccoon City, the last film, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, was dropped in 2016. Typically featuring the same cast, Raccoon City switched it up and starred a lineup that included Kaya Scodelario, Hannah John-Kamen, Robbie Amell, Tom Hopper, Avan Jogia, Donal Logue, and Neal McDonough. Between the success of the franchise’s latest animated production, feature-length reimagining, and now the Netflix series, it seems as though the zombie-riffic story of Resident Evil is truly here to stay.
