Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City Featurette: Meet Robbie Amell's Chris Redfield
Yesterday we introduced you to "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City" protagonist Claire Redfield thanks to a series of featurettes released by Sony leading up to the film's release, and today we're focusing on Claire's brother, Chris, former member of the United States Air Force and point man for the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team. Despite Claire seeming to be the focus of the newest film installment in the "Resident Evil" cinematic universe, Chris Redfield has always been the main protagonist of the Capcom "Resident Evil" video game series. In the original movie series from Paul W.S. Anderson, Chris Redfield doesn't appear until the fourth film, "Resident Evil: Afterlife," where he was portrayed by Wentworth Miller.
Now, Johannes Roberts' ("47 Meters Down") upcoming "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City" puts a spotlight on Chris Redfield, and has cast Robbie Amell ("The Flash," "The Babysitter") to fill his big, stompy boots. Check out the featurette from Sony Pictures Entertainment below, and see how "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City" is keeping their promise of the films serving as a faithful adaptation of the video games, Chris Redfield included.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City Featurette
In under a minute, Sony Pictures Entertainment managed to successfully incorporate footage of Amell's Chris Redfield not-yet-seen, statements from both Amell and Roberts about the character, and shots of some of the game's most memorable moments given the cinematic treatment. Some fans have been complaining about the non-white casting of characters like Jill Valentine and Leon S. Kennedy (they're wrong, for the record), but Robbie Amell looks like the spitting image of early incarnations of Chris Redfield. Kudos to the casting director on that one.
"Chris Redfield is a small-town hero, and now he's part of the Raccoon City police force," says Johannes Roberts in the featurette. "Chris has to become more than just a small-town hero ... he has to become this action hero." Redfield's canonical background includes a history in the military, which has always poised him as a "local boy does good" sort of figure.
"Umbrella Corporation has a virus and the virus infects the city," says Amell. "What's really cool about our movie is that it is very much an adaptation of the games. It's like I'm living in the video game, and it's really, really exciting." Amell's commentary shows up over images of Chris Redfield entering The Spencer Mansion, which the film has done a bang-up job at replicating.
What is Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City About?
From the official film synopsis from Sony Pictures Entertainment:
Returning to the terrifying roots of the massively popular franchise, fan and filmmaker Johannes Roberts brings the games of the billion dollar franchise and the most successful video game adaptation in history to life for a whole new generation of fans. Once the booming home of pharmaceutical giant Umbrella Corporation, Raccoon City is now a dying Midwestern town. The company's exodus left the city a wasteland...with great evil brewing below the surface. When that evil is unleashed, the townspeople are forever...changed...and a small group of survivors must work together to uncover the truth behind Umbrella and make it through the night.
"Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City" hits theaters on November 24, 2021.