Albert Wesker is alive – but how? The last time we saw the sunglasses-wearing virologist he was seemingly killed off by the unique combination of Chris Redfield, an RPG, and a volcano in Resident Evil 5. The new Resident Evil Netflix series, however, has revealed exactly how he makes his return. Spoilers for the Resident Evil Netflix series follow.
While the Netflix series may take place several years after the events of Resident Evil 5, a flashback to 2005 in the show’s seventh episode reveals how Wesker lived to fight another day.
In the Arklay Mountains (which Resi fans will recognize as the location of the Spencer Mountain from the first game), Wesker got his hands on Umbrella tech and used it to create three clones of himself: Albert, Alby, and Bert. One of them, Albert, is the character we see living in New Raccoon City in 2022. So, instead of ‘surviving’, Wesker laid down a contingency plan so he could live on, in effect, through his clones.
"Clones have always a bit a big part of Resident Evil. It just became very obvious in a couple different ways," showrunner Andrew Dabb told TV Line.
"Number one, it’s a way to get Albert back, but a little bit of a different Albert that we met before. The second thing is, this show is very much about parents and children, whether it’s Albert and his daughters, or Jade and her daughter, but also the original Wesker and his children because they were raised by him."
In the games, there were multiple Weskers, but they were not clones of one another – the main antagonist of Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is Alex Wesker, who, like Albert Wesker, was a child when she was chosen by Oswell E. Spencer to be part of Project W, intended to develop and advance the human race through eugenics. The new series has multiple versions of the main Wesker.
Resident Evil is now streaming on Netflix. For more lore-filled breakdowns from the show, here’s a look at whether the Resident Evil Netflix series is canon and how it fits into the series’ sprawling timeline.
