Ant-Man and the Wasp’s Hannah John-Kamen has been officially offered the role of Jill Valentine in the upcoming Resident Evil reboot for Screen Gems.
When the first Resident Evil games hit Playstation consoles in the late 90’s, the horror genre in video games simply didn’t exist. The slow burning game was built around the investigation of a zombie infection and outbreak in the fictional town of Raccoon City and the unraveling conspiracy behind it all. It was first adapted by Paul W.S. Anderson beginning with 2002’s Resident Evil, which spawned five sequels and a place near the top of B-movie glory. The franchise went on to gross over $1.2 billion dollars at the global box-office, so you can see why the property is being revamped.
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The Resident Evil franchise has multiple projects in development, and The Illuminerdi has some information about the upcoming feature film that should put smiles on the faces of Umbrella Corporation lovers – and haters – worldwide.
Scooper Daniel Richtman previously reported on Kaya Scodelario being offered the role of Claire Redfield, which is 100% accurate. However, at the present time, the negotiation has not been finalized. We weren’t able to confirm the subsequent report of Brenton Thwaites being up for Chris Redfield, which could simply mean that he passed on the part or had scheduling conflicts, since the role was still open for casting at last check.
Resident Evil’s New Jill Valentine?
The upcoming Resident Evil reboot is reported to be leaning closer to its videogame roots, and all signs indicate that those whispers are indeed true. Fan-favorite character Jill Valentine will be adapted for the film, and an official offer has been made to Killjoys’ Hannah John-Kamen.
In the new Resident Evil reboot, Valentine is described as a small town girl that enjoys hunting with the guys. She is gorgeous yet tough, and she knows how to have a good time. If John-Kamen doesn’t lock in the role, they are keeping the casting open to all ethnicities, but they are focusing on casting an African-American with mixed heritage for the role. With all those factors in place for their casting search, it’s easy to see how John-Kamen got the contract opportunity.
John-Kamen’s profile was massively amplified when she was cast as the unlikely Marvel villain Ghost in Ant-Man and the Wasp. She has a resume full of science fiction and genre works, so she is a great fit for the material.
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It was also noted that the role of Jill Valentine will become a major focal point of the franchise in future installments and they need their talent to be ready for that type of commitment.
Additional Resident Evil Details
As previously reported, Claire Redfield, Leon Kennedy, Chris Redfield, and Albert Wesker are all majors characters from the video game to be adapted into lead roles in the film. Wesker is 28 years old and described as intense and good looking, but not necessarily in a virtuous way. We can additionally confirm that Chief Irons, a minor antagonist from the game, will appear as well. Irons, who many may remember had a tragic end in the game series, is 60 years old and unhealthy. He’s described as the type who is crossing days off of his calendar towards his retirement.
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The new, untitled Resident Evil film is being directed by Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down), who is co-writing alongside Greg Russo (the writer behind the upcoming Mortal Kombat reboot). Resident Evil is being produced by Margo Klewans and Robert Kulzer for Screen Gems. The $30-40 million dollar budgeted film was initially intended to start shooting this June, but clearly the production is postponed for the duration of the pandemic protocol.
What do you think of Hannah John-Kamen for the role of Jill Valentine? Do you think the Resident Evil series needed a reboot in the first place? Let us know in the comment section and on social media. We have even more news coming at The Illuminerdi, so keep checking back for the latest.
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Jill Valentine is French-Japanese. Stop blackwashing characters for social points you morons.
Time to get a white person to play Blade!
Why does Jill’s race need to be changed. It degrades the movie overall because it shows that the directors are trying to rely on social justice brownie points. If there were a remake of princess and the frog, but Tiana was changed to be white, there would be a ton of uproar. But, since Jill will be changed to mixed African-American, the Resident Evil movie will be met with critical praise.
I don’t think Jill Valentine should be switched with her race. I mean, people are correct, an uproar would happen, and this remake would get horrible reviews, probably only 25% to about half of the entire population will watch this movie, so all the money being put into it, to being made, would be for nothing. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a racist, but comics, books, videogames, and original movies, have a specific preference for that characters race, and if you change it, people will riot. For example, look at the Reboot for Fantastic Four. The original two… Read more »
Jill valentine should be blonde american beauty..
WTF!
And why did u dissapointed us with such news.. Damn it.. We were happy about resident evil being as aNETFLEX series! And now it’s an ordinary movie with 3rd degree actors in leading rule!
Resident Evil has a pretty niche but dedicated fan base, so why would you then distort the main characters in order to score brownie points with people who probably won’t watch the series anyway..plus it’s 2020, literally nobody cares what race you are except “virtue signallers” and “social justic warriors”.
If you’re not going to stick with the storyline/characters don’t call it Resident Evil.
The only films worth watching and are true, are
The animated fan based films…resident evil degeneration resident evil Damnation and RE: Vendetta… can’t beat em so dont try 🧟♀️🧟♂️
Haven’t they learned anything from the debacle known as the Ghostbusters Reboot when Director Paul Feig told the passionate Ghostbusters fanbase to ‘Go F$(@ themselves’; even although it was directed at only one fan it resonated across the entire fanbase which didn’t turn out to see the movie which in turn caused it to loss of anywhere from $75-110 Million (Studio figures were never released but with a production cost of $144 Million and a worldwide haul of a mere $229.1 million that doesn’t include promotional cost which was figured to be an additional $100 to 120 million). Without the… Read more »
Thanks. I hate it.
I will say this, i definitely prefer the Julia Voth face for Jill that i remembered in Re1/5 face, its bad enough they changed Jills face in Re3 remake for Ps4 and Chris face in Re7. Hannah is a beautiful woman, but she shouldve maybe played as a different character maybe someone on the radio or in the helicopter. Race doesnt bother me at all its just the fact that they used a completely different person. My thing is are everyone upset because shes African American/mixed race? or because shes just a completely different person? We should not dislike someone… Read more »
This is so sad. They are completely destroying the franchise by turning it into yet another liberal propaganda piece to satisfy SJW minority, who are not even aware of RE3 and Jill. I grew up playing Resident Evil 3 Nemesis, this really breaks my heart. Just sad.
Actually, Jill Valentine is half asian-white brunette girl.
Please Sign my Petition for Jill Valentine! https://www.change.org/p/sony-tell-sony-not-to-erase-jill-valentine-s-asian-american-identity
was really buzzed till i found out who was playing jill…. they obviously care nothing of the characters… sacriligous
Thanks to the author for not being bias and asking us what we think. Quite honestly I think they shouldn’t change the race of the character and if they want a strong black female have Shiva in the mix as a character cause as they said it’s a reboot and they don’t have to follow the games storyline to a tee.
Race swapping her in any way is an automatic hard pass.
Please sign my petition for this! Thank you! https://www.change.org/ResidentEvilCasting