Why Can't Hollywood Make Resident Evil Work?

TL;DR

Every Resident Evil adaptation fails because filmmakers use the IP as a launchpad for their own unrelated stories rather than faithfully adapting the games.

Key Points

• 1.The Milla Jovovich films succeeded commercially but betrayed the source material. Running from the early 2000s to 2017, they built plots around original protagonist Alice, abandoned game storylines by film three, and winged each sequel with no overarching plan — yet kept making money.
• 2.Welcome to Raccoon City (2021) tried faithfulness but failed on budget and execution. It attempted to fuse games one and two into a single narrative with recognizable locations and characters, but wooden dialogue, poor acting, and a tiny $25 million budget exposed its limitations.
• 3.The Netflix series was the worst offender, treating the IP with open contempt. Showrunner Andrew Dab grafted a teen drama and post-apocalyptic story onto the Resident Evil name purely to secure funding, with the games' lore serving as little more than cosmetic decoration.
• 4.Zack Kger's 2026 film looks set to repeat the same pattern. Kger openly stated he'd have written this story regardless of the IP, and rumors suggest the only Resident Evil connection is a brief mention of Raccoon City near the film's end — a 'token gesture.'