Netflix Cancels ‘Resident Evil’ After One Season, Which Is No Great Tragedy

Yesterday, Netflix announced that it would be cancelling Resident Evil after just one season, meaning no season 2, and none of the multiple seasons featuring all the other Resident Evil characters that the showrunner said he had planned.

While Netflix has certainly developed a reputation for cancelling too many good shows too soon, this…is not one of those times. Resident Evil was a bad, likely expensive show and its cancellation is both expected, and warranted.

High viewership hours, a low budget, rave reviews. Pick two of those and maybe you could be on your way to renewal at a place like Netflix (emphasis on the viewership hours). But you can’t have none of them. Resident Evil briefly topped the charts of the service, but dropped off quickly as people either didn’t finish the series, or told others not to watch it.

It scored poorly among both critics and fans (it has some of the worst audience scores I’ve ever seen for a Netflix show), which is an increasing rarity in an age when we usually see them disagree. And on top of it all, with its zombies and monsters, Resident Evil seemed like it likely had a pretty hefty budget, and that may have signed its death warrant more than anything.

It was a bad show for both Resident Evil fans and casual viewers. For RE fans, the show warped the source material in truly bizarre ways, inventing this brand new story about a subdued Albert Wesker and his two daughters living in New Raccoon City. While Lance Reddick tried his best as Wesker, the entire concept just did not work, and no one really understood why they strayed so far from the source material, while simultaneously capturing little of the blockbuster zaniness that made the Milla Jovovitch movies surprise hits.

Nothing about the show worked, short of Reddick, from the script to the overall concept. And yet there were big plans to work through the entire Resident Evil canon in future seasons, according to the showrunner, Andrew Dabb:

“Over the course of the series, I want to bring everything in. Left to my own devices, I want Lady D, I want the plant monster, I want it all. I want everything, but judiciously [and] responsibly over time.”

The show ended on a cliffhanger, of course, with neither the past nor present day storylines resolved, and a tease that Ada Wong would be in season 2. Now she will not.

The process of adapting video games continues to be a very prickly prospect. It’s no longer a guaranteed disaster, as we’ve seen some great strides with things like the Sonic movies and Arcane. But there’s a wide range. Resident Evil is probably one end of the spectrum (the bad end). Paramount’s Halo is closer to the middle. I’d expect HBO’s The Last of Us to actually be quite good, based on what we’ve seen, and who is making it.

So yes, sometimes Netflix cancellations make perfect sense. And for Resident Evil, this is one of those times.

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