The cast of Resident Evil: Retribution includes many faces that will be familiar to fans of the franchise. The filmmakers devised an ingenious way to bring back characters who have met with brutal fates in earlier films, including Michelle Rodriguez’s Rain and Colin Salmon’s One from Resident Evil; Sienna Guillory’s Jill Valentine from Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Resident Evil: Afterlife; Oded Fehr’s Carlos from Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Resident Evil: Extinction; as well as Boris Kodjoe’s Luther West and Shawn Roberts’ Albert Wesker from Resident Evil: Afterlife.
“It’s exciting for us and, we hope, for the fans to have these actors and their characters back,” says Anderson. “It was a unique opportunity to work with everyone again. For instance, I’ve always wanted to work with Michelle Rodriguez again, but we shot her in the head in the first movie, which seemed to preclude bringing her back.”
But anything can and often does happen in the Resident Evil universe. “The world of the Umbrella Corporation is constantly evolving,” says Carmody, “Just as you think you’ve stopped them, another tentacle emerges.”
Anderson kicked off Resident Evil: Afterlife with an army of Alice clones, which provided him with the inspiration he needed to bring back favorite characters. “Once we introduced cloning, it really kick-started the idea of characters returning,” Anderson says.
But the cloning concept also adds a new layer of intrigue to the storyline. “The audience will wonder, ‘is that person really Carlos? Is that person really Rain?’ It’s very much in keeping with the world of gaming, where everything can change in a heartbeat.”
Jovovich relished the idea of her character reuniting with so many of her friends and foes from the previous films. “People really became invested in these characters,” she says. “When Paul figured out how to bring everyone back, we all got really excited. There’s a lot of illusion versus reality in this movie and it will take people by surprise. It was amazing to have everyone back together again.”
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