Just like that, season one of Netflix’s new much-anticipated live-action adaption of the Resident Evil franchise is here. While we’re excited to hunker down and binge our way through the show, the online conversation surrounding the franchise has put us in the mood to revisit it in all its glory.
However, putting together a cohesive timeline for the Resident Evil franchise was about as easy as taking down the Umbrella Corporation. Over the years, the franchise has grown from games to spin-off games, to movies, anime, animated movies and now even a live-action TV show.
Keeping the gigantic scope of the franchise in mind, we’ve put together (to the best of our ability) a timeline of all the canon Resident Evil games, movies and tv shows.
Resident Evil Complete Timeline
Everything Before Resident Evil: Survivor
Game: Resident Evil Zero
Reports have been mounting about unusual murders on the outskirts of Raccoon City. The city’s Special Forces division, S.T.A.R.S., sends their Bravo Team – including rookie cop member Rebecca Chambers – to investigate. When the team is forced to make a crash landing, Rebecca meets death row convict and ex-Navy lieutenant Billy Coen.
Game: Resident Evil
In 1998 a special forces team was sent to investigate some bizarre murders on the outskirts of Raccoon City. Upon arriving, they are attacked by a pack of blood-thirsty dogs and are forced to take cover in a nearby mansion. But the scent of death hangs heavy in the air. Supplies are scarce as they struggle to stay alive.
Game: Resident Evil 2
Players join rookie police officer Leon Kennedy and college student Claire Redfield, who are thrust together by a disastrous outbreak in Raccoon City that transformed its population into deadly zombies. Both Leon and Claire have their own separate playable campaigns, allowing players to see the story from both characters’ perspectives.
Game: Resident Evil 3
Jill Valentine is one of the last remaining people in Raccoon City to witness the atrocities Umbrella performed. To stop her, Umbrella unleashes their ultimate secret weapon; Nemesis.
Game: Resident Evil Survivor
In September 1998, a disaster struck the mid-western American town of Raccoon City. An outbreak of the T-virus transformed the city’s populace into zombies. The US government approved an air-to-surface missile strike on Raccoon City, annihilating the doomed town and its entire population. Not long after this incident, a helicopter crashes on the outskirts of the Umbrella Corporation, and the pilot escapes the burning wreckage only to find himself fighting a battle against the living dead, with no memory of his identity or his reasons for being there.
Everything Before Resident Evil: Revelations
Game: Resident Evil: Code Veronica
Raccoon City was just the beginning. Claire and Chris Redfield’s nightmare continues as the siblings fight to survive against zombies and other monstrosities within Umbrella’s deadly facilities. Explore the mysterious Rockfort Island facility and the freezing Antarctic Base for clues exposing the Umbrella Corporation’s sordid goals and the truth behind the eerie and unsettling Ashford twins.
Game: Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles
The game’s plot revolves around the personal stories in the series. Its primary focus is retelling the events of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil – Code: Veronica.
Game: Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles exposes the Umbrella Corporation’s meddling throughout the Resident Evil series through narration from Albert Wesker, a former Umbrella scientist, and hidden documents about the organization’s secret motives and actions.
Game: Resident Evil 4
Special agent Leon S. Kennedy is sent on a mission to rescue the U.S. President’s daughter, who has been kidnapped. Finding his way to a rural European village, Leon battles horrific new creatures infested by a new threat called Las Plagas. He faces off against an aggressive group of enemies, including mind-controlled villagers tied to Los Illuminados. This mysterious cult is behind the abduction.
Game: Resident Evil: Revelations
Resident Evil: Revelations takes players back to the events between Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, revealing the truth about the T-Abyss virus.
Everything Before Resident Evil: Damnation
Movie: Resident Evil: Degeneration
A zombie attack brings chaos to Harvardville Airport. Leon Kennedy and Clair Redfield, who fought the sinister Umbrella Corporation during the Raccoon City tragedy seven years ago, are back. Will Clair and Leon be able to terminate the virus before history repeats itself?
Movie: Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness
Set between the events of Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, the series takes place in 2006 after a hacking incident is uncovered at the White House. Leon S. Kennedy is ordered to investigate the incident, but he encounters zombies when the White House is targeted in a mysterious attack.
Game: Resident Evil 5
The Umbrella Corporation and its crop of lethal viruses have been destroyed and contained. But a new, more dangerous threat has emerged. Years after surviving the events in Raccoon City, Chris Redfield has been fighting the scourge of bio-organic weapons worldwide. Now a member of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance, Chris is sent to Africa to investigate a biological agent transforming the populace into aggressive and disturbing creatures.
Game: Resident Evil: Revelations 2
Resident: Evil Revelations 2 sees Claire Redfield make a dramatic return. Survivor of the Raccoon City incident depicted in previous Resident Evil games, Claire now works for the anti-bioterrorism organization Terra Save. Moira Burton, is attending her welcome party for Terra Save when unknown armed forces storm the office. Claire and Moira are knocked unconscious and awaken later to find themselves in a dark, abandoned detention facility. Working together, they must find out who took them and to what sinister end.
Movie: Resident Evil: Damnation
United States Special Agent Leon S. Kennedy sneaks into a small Eastern European country to verify rumours that Bio Organic Weapons are being used in war. Right after his infiltration, the U.S. government orders him to leave immediately. Determined to uncover the truth, Leon ignores the order and enters the battlefield to end the chain of tragedies caused by the weapons.
Everything Before Resident Evil season one
Game: Umbrella Corps
Umbrella Corporation, a ruthless international pharmaceutical company, had been known for its genetic experiments and biological weaponry that led to worldwide devastation including the infamous Raccoon City incident. Although the organization was brought down in 2003, its legacy of bio-terrorism continued.
Game: Resident Evil 6
Leon, Chris and Ada are back, and this time they are joined by newcomer Jake Muller, to face a new horror, the highly virulent C-virus.
Movie: Resident Evil: Vendetta
Chris Redfield teams up with Leon Kennedy, a DSO agent, and Rebecca Chambers, a professor, to track down Glenn Arias, a death merchant who wants to unleash a deadly virus in New York City.
Game: Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Set in modern-day rural America and taking place after the dramatic events of Resident Evil 6.
Game: Resident Evil: Village
Set a few years after the horrifying events in the critically acclaimed Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, the story begins with Ethan Winters and his wife Mia living peacefully in a new location, free from their past nightmares. Just as they build their new life together, tragedy befalls them again.
TV Show: Resident Evil season one
While we don’t want to go into spoiler territory, the new Netflix adaption complicates the timeline. The show alternates between two distinct timelines, one in 2022 and one in 2036. This means that Resident Evil season one occurs 24 and 38 years after the end of the original game trilogy.
Fans of the franchise might notice that a few titles are missing here, such as the live-action Resident Evil movies and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City are not mentioned on this timeline. This is due to them not forming part of the franchises overarching canon, therefore not fitting into the chronology.
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