Resident Evil to be adapted into eight-episode Netflix series

Story will be divided over two timelines

Netflix has announced that it will release a serialised live-action adaptation of the hit video game franchise Resident Evil.

According to the streaming service, the series will take the form of eight hour-long episodes.

The Walking Dead’s Bronwen Hughes will executive-produce and direct the first two episodes, while Andrew Dabb (Supernatural) will serve as overall showrunner.

The story, Netflix has confirmed, will be split across two different timelines.

Netflix’s official Twitter account stated: “When the Wesker kids move to New Raccoon City, the secrets they uncover might just be the end of everything.

‘Resident Evil 3’ was released earlier this year (Capcom)

“Resident Evil, a new live-action series based on Capcom’s legendary survival horror franchise, is coming to Netflix.”

The Resident Evil franchise encompasses 12 core games (including remakes) and 13 spin-offs, with another, Resident Evil: Village, set to come out next year. It has already been adapted into a series of Hollywood films, written and produced by Paul WS Anderson.

Netflix also provided further details about the TV adaptation’s storyline.

“In the first timeline,” it revealed, “14-year-old sisters Jade and Billie Wesker are moved to New Raccoon City. But the more time they spend there, the more they come to realise that the town is more than it seems and their father may be concealing dark secrets. Secrets that could destroy the world.

“Cut to the second timeline, well over a decade into the future: there are less than 15 million people left on Earth. And more than six billion monsters — people and animals infected with the T-virus. Jade, now 30, struggles to survive in this New World, while the secrets from her past — about her sister, her father and herself — continue to haunt her.”

The most recent entry in the saga was a remake of Resident Evil 3, released on consoles earlier this year. You can read The Independent’s two-star review of the game here.