Resident Evil Movies in Order: Release and Chronological Guide

The Resident Evil movies in order of release are eight live action films, running from Resident Evil (2002) to Resident Evil (2026). Six of them follow Alice, played by Milla Jovovich, a character created for the films who does not appear in the games. The other two start fresh with game characters or new ones. All eight are rated R in the US, and the violence is zombies, mutated creatures and gunfights rather than anything lingering. The animated films, such as Resident Evil: Degeneration and Resident Evil: Death Island, are a separate line from the live action films, and none of the eight live action stories needs them.

Run one: the Alice films

1. Resident Evil 2002, directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, released in the US on March 15, 2002. Alice wakes with no memory in a mansion, and a commando team heads down into the Hive.
2. Resident Evil Apocalypse, directed by Alexander Witt, released September 10, 2004. The T-virus reaches Raccoon City, and Alice meets Jill Valentine and Carlos Olivera.
3. Resident Evil Extinction, directed by Russell Mulcahy, released September 21, 2007. The outbreak has gone global and most of the planet is desert.
4. Resident Evil Afterlife, directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, released September 10, 2010. It was the first film in the run shot in 3D.
5. Resident Evil Retribution, directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, released September 14, 2012. Alice is captured and wakes in a suburban home.
6. Resident Evil The Final Chapter, directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, released January 27, 2017 in the US. Japan saw it first, with a release on December 23, 2016.

Run two: the reboot

1. Resident Evil Welcome to Raccoon City, directed by Johannes Roberts, released November 24, 2021. It drops Alice and adapts the games' characters, among them Claire and Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine and Leon Kennedy.

Run three: the Cregger film

1. Resident Evil 2026, directed by Zach Cregger, released September 18, 2026. A medical courier delivers a package to a hospital in Raccoon City on a snowy night.

The gap between runs is long. Six films arrived in fifteen years, then nearly five years passed before the reboot, and almost five more before Cregger's film. In Australia, Resident Evil: Apocalypse carries an M rating and the other seven are MA 15+, while in the UK all eight are rated 15. For the full list and count, see how many Resident Evil movies there are.

Start with Resident Evil (2002) if you want the full Alice story, and start with Resident Evil (2026) if you want a single film with no homework. That is my pick, and it comes from how the runs are built rather than from any ranking of quality.

Do you need to watch the Resident Evil movies in order? For the Alice run, yes, in my opinion. Extinction opens with a clone of Alice dying in a mansion trap and then jumps five years, and Afterlife opens on a raid on Umbrella's Tokyo base, so both lean on events you will have missed if you skip ahead. Recurring faces such as Carlos, K-Mart and Claire also pay off only if you saw them arrive.

The reboot and the Cregger film are different. Welcome to Raccoon City reintroduces Claire, Chris, Jill, Leon and Wesker from scratch, and Cregger's film follows Bryan, Paul and Maxine, new characters with no earlier appearances. Perhaps the cleanest route for a newcomer is to watch whichever of those two appeals and leave the Alice films for later. The 2026 film is also the commercial high point so far, at about $400 million worldwide on a $75 million budget according to The Numbers, ahead of The Final Chapter at $312 million. The full figures sit on the Resident Evil box office page.

If you want a quick plan, it depends on your time and taste. For the whole saga, watch films one to six in release order, then the reboot, then 2026. If you are short on time, Resident Evil (2026) alone will do. If you come from the games, Welcome to Raccoon City comes first, since it uses the games' cast, and the Alice films follow. For the cast of each, see the Resident Evil cast page, and for verdicts see Resident Evil movies ranked. To see what is coming next, check the new Resident Evil movie page, and to find a stream, go to where to watch Resident Evil. The full set is also on the Resident Evil movies hub.