Although the NetflixResident Evilseries doesn’t feature any of the game’s main playable protagonists in a leading role, that doesn’t mean there’s no action hero in the series. The adult version of Jade Weskar (who isdefined by her traumatic past) is definitely the show’s primary, grounded action hero and has some big shoes to fill to stand alongside the legacy heroes like Chris, Claire, and the others.
Much like in manyResident Evilgames, the series begins the future timeline by putting its hero through a series of terrifying and deadly encounters with both monsters and other humans who can’t be trusted. Jade is on a journey to get back to her family in one piece and can’t seem to catch a break between Umbrella trying to hunt her down and lickers, mutated spiders, and zeroes around every corner.
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The actress taking on the role of adult Jade in Resident Evil is a longtime fan of the video game franchise and seems thrilled with the opportunity to put her own spin on a brand-new franchise hero inher side of the Netflix show’s timelines. Game Rant recently had a chance to sit down with Ella Balinska and talk about the excitement of bringing adult Jade into the franchise…
Game Rant:With no existing game character to draw inspiration from since Jade is brand new, were there any other existing characters or archetypes from Resident Evil or other survival horror that you looked to when thinking about your performance?
Ella Balinska:I was a huge player of the games so I’m very familiar with all the characters. I loved pulling from certain human aspects of different characters. Whether it was Jill or Claire or whoever it was. I think that’s the part that made us fall in love with those characters is that they were just people. They were scared and they were figuring it out beat to beat. So, now it’s like I’m thinking about the ten-year-old gamer version of me and I have absolute artistic license to invent one of those characters for herself? Absolutely!
As more viewers get a chance to binge the first season on Netflix, it will be very interesting to see how new and veteran fans react tothe Weskar family dramaand Jade’s new position on this side of the franchise history. There are some pretty big hints that at least one legacy Resident Evil protagonist could be entering the fray, so it would be very cool to see how the new characters interact with more existing franchise characters as they arrive.
Be sure to check back for moreResident Evilcoverage in the near future now that the first season has dropped.
