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What Resident Evil Wiki is not


The Resident Evil franchise is a large and complex storyline with stories present in game, novel, comic and film form. While there are a number of recognised alternate universes in the franchise, canon remains complex even when focusing only on the canon devised by Capcom for their console games (which we dub the "Prime Universe").

What does "canon" mean and how is it used?[]

"Canon" is derived from a Latin word used by a number of Christian denominations to describe either a rule (Christian religious law, "Canon Law") or a term to describe the officially-recognised religious texts ("Biblical canon"). Since the 20th century, the term "canon" has widely come to describe which material is true to a fictional universe. By extension, the rule of 'canon' also applies to separating this official material from fan-fiction featuring the same characters, and separating official material recognised by the license-holders from officially-licensed material made by external writers.

In the Star Trek franchise, for instance, canon has a complex format. All live-action television shows and films are in the official, recognised canon even if certain story elements conflict. Licensed novels such as those done by S.D. Perry are not part of this canon, and while ideas may be collected for official works (for instance, when Perry's idea of a rogue Section 31 computer became the central plot to Season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery) the novels are not automatically made canon. The Star Trek Tech Manuals, story bibles written by the series writers, are officially non-canon despite their source of information, but are otherwise accepted as canon exempting parts that are contradicted later. The animated "Star Trek: The Animated Series" was made non-canon by deathbed request of producer Gene Roddenberry, but had and continued to be used as a source of information elsewhere in the series. It was however only when StarTrek.com confirmed "TAS" to be part of the official canon that elements of the series not mentioned in the other shows were accepted.

How does canon work in Resident Evil?[]

When looking at the development of Capcom's official canon - the console games, which the Wiki dubs "Prime" canon - it should be noted it went through considerable change over the years, with the biggest change being around the time of the release of Resident Evil 4. As a rule of thumb, licensed works from pre-2005 are generally non-canon, and licensed works post-2005 generally are.

Pre-2005[]

Recognising their mistakes in the Street Fighter: The Movie film project, Capcom was quick to market their new Resident Evil IP to maximise game sales but was reluctant to being involved from a creative standpoint. The general understanding in these agreements was instead that the licensees would do whatever they wished with the IP to make them successful in their own right, with fans naturally being drawn to the games. By having creative freedom, writers were able to come up with a variety of scenarios for the characters. One one end of the scale, the S.D. Perry novels (Pocket Books) came up with a new backstory for Jill which contradicted the established lore of the time. On the other end, King's Fountain introduced magical elements into the series, with Leon gaining mystical powers.

By 2000 Capcom had struck a number of successful licensing deals, including:

  • Constantin Film, who picked up live-action film rights.
  • Pocket Books, who picked up novel publishing rights in North America and Europe.
    • Chuokoron-Shinsha and Kadokawa, who published these novels in Japan.
  • Marvel Comics and WildStorm/DC Comics, which picked up manhua rights successively in North America and Europe.
  • King's Fountain and Tinhangse, who picked up comic rights in Hong Kong.
  • Super Eccentric Theater, who performed a musical parody.

Alongside these licensees, Capcom also participated in expanding the Resident Evil franchise with its own commissioned side-stories which were published as novellas, seen on a TV screen or aired as radio dramas. Nonetheless, these works were still regarded at the time as non-canon,[1] though there were efforts to incorporate elements of the Flagship-written stories into the games.


Post-2005[]

Around the release of Resident Evil 4, Capcom changed their internal policy on licensing agreements in favour of a more fan-friendly expanded universe. New licensing agreements after this date were under tighter scrutiny on the creative front. In some projects, like Degeneration and Damnation, there was considerable overlap with writer Shotaro Suga handling both games and two of the animated films. In others producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi would oversee the project and request alterations to maintain the flow of canon.

It should be noted that not all projects post-2005 are part of the "Prime" canon. Constantin Film's license was never revoked or renegotiated, and as late as 2021 is making Resident Evil films and a TV show set outside the Prime continuity. Though Pocket Books' license expired, Titan Books' similar agreement allowed it to make its own adaptations of the Resident Evil films.


Canon list[]

Game works by Capcom[]

Non-game works by Capcom[]

Licensed works[]

Below are works written and produced by third-parties, but under tight licensing controls by Capcom. These works are canon-friendly and recognised in official timelines published by Capcom.

Semi-canon list[]

Listed here are works either written by Flagship or licensed out to external writers. They are based on story material, so have good insight into the Prime canon. However, as they are not part of the official canon they can be contradicted in places by later game releases.

Flagship[]

Licensed[]

Non-canon list[]

These works are totally non-canon, even if they have ties to Capcom. They may have been quickly disregarded tie-ins to the original Resident Evil before the founding of Flagship, or promotions overseen Capcom USA with no access to story notes. A unique case is Voice of Gaia, where it was agreed-upon by Capcom that being an alternate universe story would be better so as to give it as much freedom as possible.[2]

Sources[]

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