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    Capcom's Resident Evil (or Biohazard in Japan) series continues to draw in players with its stories of hideous mutations and the pharmaceutical company Umbrella Inc. It is Capcom's best-selling franchise in terms of software sales.

    Resident Evil is making its way to the stage.

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    Yummylee

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    #1  Edited By Yummylee

    As posted above, a ''reheresal'' video has been released, showing off a portion of what looks to be some pretty complicated live theatre zombie shenanigans, complete with the main theme of RE6 playing over most of it for some reason. Obviously it's all still in Japanese, but you don't need to understand the language to tell this could potentially turn out to be a rather... interesting watch. There's also a strange J-pop track inserted in there too, which has just now made me come to the realisation of how dearly I would love to see a Resident Evil musical come about. I can't help but envision a baritone Barry breaking into song about how much he loves his magnum, titled ''I Have This!'', and Jill softly ruminating about her close call at becoming a sandwich.

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    Or ''Biohazard'' is making its way to the stage rather, as it's currently a Japanese-only production. Still! Given that there are RE movies--of both the live-action and CG variety--books, comics, themed restaurants, and also the odd video game here and there, the stage seems like a logical next step for Resident Evil's goal to extend its rotting paws across all available forms of media, and then some.

    No Caption Provided

    The plot premise is as follows:

    The stage is set in a western Australia university, where a bioterrorism incident occurs. A couple of anti-bioterrorism members from BSAA in Chris and Piers show up to investigate, and they’ll work with former S.T.A.R.S. member Rebecca, who is currently working as a professor at the university.

    A mysterious young man named Tyler Howard also shows up, but no one knows anything about him; however what he also seems to know the shocking truth behind the incident.

    With the rapidly spreading virus and zombies approaching, will they be able to solve the case on time?

    I'm going to take a wild guess and say: yes, they will solve the case in time. I hafta wonder if this is also to be canon, set before the events of RE6 given the inclusion of Piers Nivans, as it looks to actually expand on just what the Hell Rebecca Chambers has been up to. Barry finally got his belated return in Revelations 2, and while it's a little more out of the way for Rebecca to receive her valiant return via a Japanese-only theatre production, she's at least being acknowledged! Rebecca going into education and working as a professor makes for a pretty good fit for her future too, though Australia's an unexpected location for her to take up shop.

    Witnessing an RE stage story definitely only has two outcomes: utter misery or absolute hilarity, and it's a shame English-speaking audiences likely won't get to see the result for themselves!

    Also

    No Caption Provided

    That there is an image made by Creative Assembly concept artist Brad Wright, which looks to imply that they actually pitched an RE game to Capcom, though it obviously didn't get very far. Perhaps this was inspired in-part because of Capcom shelling out their properties to western developers for a time? Though the image is said to have potentially been five years old, so who knows when it was actually pitched? It's a shame anywhoo, given that they have already proven their horror chops when it comes to Alien: Isolation. Even if it's not to be an RE thing, I certainly hope they get around to making another horror game all in due time.

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    hassun

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    #2  Edited By hassun

    After the films I am definitely not looking forward to a RE stage play. Then again imagining just how they would do it does make me kind of intrigued.
    Then again who can forget this amazing piece of RE history:

    Loading Video...
    Loading Video...

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    Yummylee

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    @hassun: Holy Fuck, that looks so awesome! Also, couldn't help but notice the inordinate amount of women at that thing. Never thought about how each gender took to RE, but in Japan at least it looks to potentially have a pretty big female following? The appeal of something like that definitely extends beyond Resident Evil, though.

    And yeah, speaking for the movies you could chalk the live-action shlock up to Paul W.S. Anderson being a terrible filmmaker, but Capcom themselves were involved with the CG movies and both were just awful, particularly Damnation.

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    hassun

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    @yummylee: Yeah Capcom themselves certainly don't get a pass considering the path RE has taken over the years. There's a reason it's one of the few series where I prefer remakes over new entries. I still think they should reboot the entire franchise.

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    officer_falcon

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    #5  Edited By officer_falcon

    My only real question is how big will Chris' arms be.

    As far as canon does Capcom even try to keep things working together story wise? I know the games are all related but what about things like those animated movies or the manga? The live action movies and books are obviously their own things but I don't know how any of the other things relate to each other, if at all.

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    Yummylee

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    @hassun said:

    @yummylee: Yeah Capcom themselves certainly don't get a pass considering the path RE has taken over the years. There's a reason it's one of the few series where I prefer remakes over new entries. I still think they should reboot the entire franchise.

    Once the RE2 remake is done (and maybe RE3), and also after hopefully remastering RE5 for PS4/XB1 as well, then yeah, I think it'd be beneficial if they nuke the thing and rebuild from the ashes. Or at the very least just start brainstorming new concepts that are set in locations unrelated to the core group of Chris, Leon, Jill ect., if not further into the future. Would be interesting for an RE game to actually be set in space or something. We already technically got that, sort of, but it would instead be official and with more of a Japanese influence. A soft-reboot of sorts anywhoo, for it to still exist within the same universe but is of a small enough scale (by cordoning the game to, say, a single building) that it doesn't actually matter.

    My only real question is how big will Chris' arms be.

    As far as canon does Capcom even try to keep things working together story wise? I know the games are all related but what about things like those animated movies or the manga? The live action movies and books are obviously their own things but I don't know how any of the other things relate to each other, if at all.

    Would be hilarious if Chris's actor actually had to wear prosthetic biceps or something. And the CG movies are technically canon. Degeneration is what first introduced Terra Save, as well as Claire being a member, from Revelations 2, and there was also a post-credits scene showing some TriCell people to loosely link it to RE5 in some manner. Damnation doesn't really have anything to connect it to the games and is basically framed as being just another Leon S. Kennedy Saves The Day escapade. Which is for the best because, again, it's bloody shit!

    The overall lore and timeline is starting to get out of control, though, hence why a reboot of some sort is increasingly starting to feel like a necessity. Hell, what's funny is with the announcement of RE6, Capcom themselves actually got the date wrong! It's set in 2013, but they initially said it was set ''10 years after the Raccoon City incident'', which would make it 2008.

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    Yummylee

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    Bumped with ''reheresal'' video.

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