‘Resident Evil’ Season 2 On Netflix Feels Increasingly Unlikely To Happen

I’ve been doing this long enough where I can get a certain vibe for whether a streaming series seems likely to be renewed or not, which is a bit different than how things used to be with networks. Sometimes it’s obvious, but with so many hidden metrics, it can often feel like a crapshoot in terms of what gets renewed and what doesn’t. Especially on Netflix.

For Resident Evil, the new video game adaptation that surfaced to #1 on the service before being unseated by Stranger Things again, I have a feeling that it may not live past this first season here, no matter what plans its showrunners have, or how many cliffhangers it ends on.

Here’s what’s working against Resident Evil:

A Potentially High Cost – While it may not be a Jupiter’s Legacy-level money sink, Resident Evil is a sci-fi show about a post-apocalyptic future, full of practical effects for its zombies and lots of digital effects for its larger monsters. As such, it’s probably a good bit more expensive than your average series on the service, which would require higher viewership to justify a continued investment.

Critics Don’t Like It – We live in a golden era of TV where right now, I can list probably two dozen shows across six streaming services airing right now that have gotten above a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, while Resident Evil has 51%, very low by TV review standards these days. And you can’t really say “well critics are snobs and don’t like video game stuff” because Netflix also has Arcane (100%), Castlevania (94%) and The Witcher (81%) in its roster, which have not faced similar criticism. And then there’s the next point:

Audiences Hate It Even More – This is not some issue where critics hate something fun and audiences are much more tolerant. Resident Evil has some of the lowest audience scores I’ve ever seen for any series on Netflix, a 26% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 3.7 on IMDB. Resident Evil fans really dislike the “original” take on the universe, and have rated it lower than the endless string of blockbuster movies. Non-fans are either ignoring it, or don’t like it either.

The point is, even though Resident Evil rose to the top of the charts briefly after its debut, it may need a lot of viewership to justify its cost. Past that, I don’t think Netflix enjoys this current narrative that many of its original productions are low quality, and what message does it send when something is this poorly reviewed (and not even a trashy reality show at that) but continues to be invested in?

The one thing working in Resident Evil’s favor is that Netflix also doesn’t like being the service accused of killing shows too soon or not letting them wrap up their storylines. Considering pretty much nothing is resolved in Resident Evil season 1 and it ends on a lot of cliffhangers, that would be another example of a show not finishing its narrative. But given that the showrunner has said he wants to adapt essentially all major parts of the series over a number of years, I’m not sure it would ever be finished. I do wonder if the cliffhanger ending was a tactic to try and make sure they got renewed. I just don’t think it will work.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.