Writing Greg Russo's version Pre-production took place in early 2017 while
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter was still in theatres, with
Constantin Film chairman
Martin Moszkowicz saying that a reboot of the series was in development, and producer
James Wan expressing interest in the project.
Greg Russo was attached as writer in 2017. Russo, who was also attached to write the script for
Mortal Kombat (2021) at the time, worked with Wan in creating a
Resident Evil story he considered to be "brutal and horrifying", and drew inspiration from the 2017 video game
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, though he would later clarify he only drew on the tones of the game—"scary, isolated, alone"—rather than the story itself. Russo wanted
Moonlight Sonata, a composition featured in
several Resident Evil games, to feature in the opening credits. Constantin was unimpressed with this script, feeling the game was too recent and its potential failure could harm film sales. Seeking alternate story ideas, Constantin proposed the incorporation at one point of a time travel subplot. Ultimately, Wan and Russo decided to leave the project citing creative differences and their departures were confirmed in December 2018.
Johannes Roberts' version In December 2018, it was announced that
Johannes Roberts was attached to write and direct the film. In August 2019, Roberts told
Screen Rant that the reboot would be "super, super scary" and more faithful to the games than the previous films. In a statement to
Deadline Hollywood, Roberts said the film would be based on
Resident Evil (1996) and
Resident Evil 2 (1998). Roberts said he wanted to give the film a darker tone. Inspired by
John Carpenter's films, including
Halloween,
Assault on Precinct 13, and
The Fog, the filmmaker explained that the story was divided between two main locations: Spencer Mansion from the first game and the Raccoon Police Department, which first appeared in
Resident Evil 2. Roberts chose the tone for the
remake of the second game as a model for the film. Although director
Paul W. S. Anderson and
Milla Jovovich released six commercially successful films based on the games between 2002 and 2017, Roberts emphasized that his version was different from the series that preceded it: In early drafts, the screenplay was ambitious, incorporating a variety of mutants from the first two games into the narrative even if only passively. The story was from the start intended as an ensemble piece comparable to
Resident Evil: Apocalypse, following several major characters in the film as their paths converge. Over the course of 2019 and 2020, the film script was repeatedly altered, keeping the main story but removing a number of CG-heavy elements, condensing the supporting cast and tweaking the protagonists' arcs. Earlier drafts also included more original characters, monsters and locations from the games, before Roberts had to make changes to his script after the budget was cut from $40 million to $25 million. Some of the cuts and changes were made so late that most of the concept artwork done by Daniel Carrasco for the monsters to be featured was finished, including Hunters, Chimeras, Crimson Heads, Pale Heads, giant spiders, Neptune (giant shark), Tyrant (aka Mr. X), and others. Originally, Claire and Chris had no connection with Birkin or Ben Bertolucci, this was added later to help streamline the story after other script changes. The characters were also closer to their original video game versions; Jill was not written as a reckless wildcard and Claire was not a conspiracy theorist who already knew of Umbrella's intentions. Barry Burton, Rebecca Chambers and other characters from the games were originally in the scripts, and some had death scenes written for them. Some of the action scenes were cut down or changed, mostly due to budget cuts, such as a scene where Lisa Trevor sacrifices herself attacking Birkin while everyone else escapes on the train.
Casting In early 2020, casting was underway but was delayed by the
COVID-19 pandemic. On October 6,
Deadline Hollywood reported that Scodelario and
Hannah John-Kamen had been cast as
Claire Redfield and
Jill Valentine, alongside
Robbie Amell,
Tom Hopper,
Avan Jogia, and
Neal McDonough as
Chris Redfield,
Albert Wesker,
Leon S. Kennedy, and
William Birkin, respectively. In Japan, Capcom later confirmed the characters will be dubbed by voice actors different from the Anderson films. For example, Chris and Claire are voiced by
Subaru Kimura and
Fairouz Ai instead of
Hiroki Tōchi and
Hiroe Oka.
Filming Principal photography began in
Greater Sudbury,
Ontario, Canada, on October 17, 2020, with
Maxime Alexandre serving as cinematographer. Filming was completed on December 24, 2020. In March 2021, Roberts revealed the full title as
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. In May 2021, Amell revealed that the film was undergoing reshoots in
Toronto and
Hamilton. ==Music==