Thirteen screen titles, and here’s the secret nobody tells newcomers: the famous movies aren’t the canon. The Milla Jovovich blockbusters, the 2021 reboot and the Netflix show are all separate branches off one root — Capcom’s game saga — and only the animated films actually belong to it. Every branch builds its own Raccoon City. Every branch destroys it differently. Pick your outbreak.
Unlike Halloween or Texas Chainsaw, Resident Evil’s continuities don’t branch off a shared film — they branch off a video game series. That root changes everything: three lanes adapt the games loosely or faithfully, and one lane — the CG animated films — is officially part of game canon, with Capcom’s blessing. Each lane has its own Raccoon City, and its own way of losing it.
The Root — Capcom’s games — the source every screen version grows from (1996 → today)
▽ four screen branches grow from this root — only one is canon to it ▽
The game-canon spine — where the CG films really live
This is the round’s cross-media party trick: slot the animated films into the actual game timeline and they stop being curiosities — they’re the connective tissue between the games you’ve played. Dashed cards are the games (the load-bearing canon); solid cards are the screen entries you can check off. Welcome to Raccoon City isn’t here because it re-stages 1998 in its own continuity — a retelling, not the record.
All 13 screen titles — in release order
Two decades of screen Resident Evil in the order the world got it — six Anderson films back-to-back while the canon CG line grew quietly alongside, then three different reboots in three years (2021–2022) as everyone tried to figure out what comes after Alice.
Alice — the protagonist who isn’t in the games
The face of movie Resident Evil appears in no Resident Evil game. Alice was invented for the films by writer-director Paul W. S. Anderson for Milla Jovovich — and over six films she goes from amnesiac security operative to psychic superweapon to clone army to, finally, the franchise’s strangest twist. The fandom has argued about her for twenty years; here’s her whole arc, honestly told.
The character multiverse — same names, different universes
Leon, Claire, Jill, Chris, Wesker and Ada exist in up to four separate continuities at once, played by different actors with different fates. This is the map of who shows up where — including the four Leons and the Wesker who died in the games but kept right on scheming in the movies.
Where to start — pick your outbreak
Thirteen titles across four continuities is a lot of virus. Each of these routes is self-contained and honest about what it is.
Beyond the screen — the canon itself, and its satellites
For once, “beyond the screen” isn’t bonus material — it’s the main event. The games are the canon the whole page orbits, so here’s the fastest honest map of them, plus the novels and manga that grew alongside.
Every released episode0/12 episodes watched
Each season/show card above is a bulk control; the rows below are the individual episode watch units. Released rows through 2026-07-21 are included.