Netflix’s Resident Evil has already been canceled

Netflix’s Resident Evil series has been canceled a little over a month after its initial debut, according to a report from Deadline. The streamer reportedly decided against renewing the series due to lackluster ratings and viewership.

Like the many other Resident Evil adaptations, Netflix’s live-action series attempts to put yet another spin on the video game franchise it’s based on. The show, which was helmed by Supernatural’s Andrew Dabb, flashes between two different timelines, centering around Umbrella executive Albert Wesker (Lance Reddick) and his two daughters (played by Tamara Smart and Siena Agudong).

In our review of the series, my colleague Charles Pulliam-Moore notes that it “keeps things feeling fresh up to a point,” but it’s dragged down by a “predictable plot that ultimately suffers from being such a late entry in the modern-day zombie craze.” Resident Evil made Netflix’s top 10 list of its most-watched shows the week it debuted and the two weeks that followed, but largely fell off the map after that. It also doesn’t help that it premiered only a couple of months after the season four debut of Stranger Things, which potentially stole some of Resident Evil’s spotlight.

In addition to its live-action adaptation, Netflix also has an animated four-part series Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness that it released last year. The series focuses heavily on the lore of the Resident Evil franchise and was also met with mixed reviews. Even if Netflix’s live-action Resident Evil wasn’t quite the hit it intended, the streamer has several other video game adaptations on tap, including ones based on Horizon Zero Dawn, Tomb Raider, Far Cry, and Bioshock. Netflix already has an anime based on Castlevania and recently debuted an animated adaptation of Tekken.