Resident Evil is going to be a very different beast when it returns to theaters later this year.
Indeed, besides being a total reboot of Capcom’s revered survival horror franchise, director of the original six-part series, Paul W.S. Anderson, won’t be calling the shots this time around. Instead, fellow Brit Johannes Roberts will be taking charge of the project, which is said to adhere much closer to the source material than any other adaptation to date, covering the initial outbreak at Spencer Mansion as well as the T-Virus’ subsequent spread through neighboring Raccoon City. We’ll have to wait, of course, until a trailer surfaces to serve any worthwhile opinions, but hopes are high, especially among the hardcore fanbase, that Roberts’ vision will be markedly more faithful.
But what of Anderson? Does the filmmaker consider his contribution to Resident Evil concluded, or is he open to perhaps one day making a return? The answer to those questions, as if you couldn’t have guessed, is relatively non-committal, though somewhat surprisingly, the man responsible for bringing Monster Hunter and Mortal Kombat to life on the big screen stops short of ruling out a reunion entirely.
Speaking to We Got This Covered’s Scott Campbell in a recent interview, Anderson describes how, having spent more than a decade of his life on Resident Evil, he was ready for a change following the release of The Final Chapter in 2017. With that said, however, he keenly stresses that he’ll never close the book on that part of his career permanently, citing the “late, great, immortal Sean Connery” by adding that he’ll “never say never.”
Resident Evil lands in theaters this September while Anderson’s Monster Hunter is scheduled to release on DVD and Blu-ray next week, March 2nd. See here for the full interview with WGTC.