Resident Evil is a storied transmedia franchise that has been around for over 25 years. Across video games, books, manga, films, and an upcoming TV adaptation that’s a lot of content for a zombie themed series. These typically tend to overstay their welcome, especially during that weird period in the 2010s where nearly every other film, TV show, or game had a zombie theme of some sort. Resident Evil in a very realistic way can be viewed as a pioneer of the modern zombie genre. Recently, however it seems as though Capcom is looking to move away from the zombie theme the franchise was famous for in favor of a supernatural horror theme. This isn’t the first time Resident Evil tried to distance itself a bit from zombies. Resident Evil 7 also featured some paranormal elements of sort such as a “ghost girl” and a literal immortal who could die several times over and keep coming back.

Resident Evil Village has been toying even further with the franchise’s recent flirt with the supernatural by including creatures resembling vampires and dogmen. It’s an interesting direction to take the franchise, but it does beg to question how these beings came do exist within the world. Did the virus mutate transforming people into these unique forms? Or have they always been there? Is Umbrella or some other organization that was playing around with the virus cause of this new phenomenon? The recent demo released on Playstation 5 hints that these are genuine cryptids existing from within the Resident Evil lore. Fans were unsure of this potential directional shift when it was teased in Resident Evil 7 leading to developers of the game reassuring them that this was not the case. Since the unveiling of ‘Village’ however, the fandom has seemingly warmed up to the idea and many on social media praising it. Capcom have never really been afraid of trying new things with their IP and honestly Resident Evil is overdue for a bit of change if even a slight one. As the story continues to expand the series’ lore from the introduction of new characters to the world itself I think changes are to be expected if even temporary. And as a long time fan I enjoy the idea of Capcom giving me more reasons to spend way more time than I probably should trying to answer all these questions. Resident Evil Village releases on PC, Playstation 5, Playstation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One on May 7, 2021.