With a set release date of May 7, many fans are already starting the countdown for Resident Evil Village (aka Resident Evil 8). While it seems that Lady Dimitrescu has taken hold of the internet, with fan art and cosplay running wild, there is a great deal of mystery surrounding the plot of Resident Evil Village and how the game fits into the Resident Evil timeline.
Details on the story are still sparse and what has been revealed is still a little too piecemeal to start building solid theories, so there is a great deal of speculation taking over forum threads. The Resident Evil Village demo, Maiden, has given players a cursory look at how the game will feel, as well as offering a few details that are likely to be fleshed out in game. There isn't much in the demo to give us an idea of a timeline, save for one item that establishes a new unexpected point on the convoluted RE timeline.
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After the first trailer for Resident Evil Village was released, it was quickly followed by a "Special Developer Message" that revealed a few new details about Resident Evil Village. While the first trailer revealed both Resident Evil 7 protagonist Ethan Winters and longtime series veteran Chris Redfield, the follow up message explained that RE Village takes place a few years after the events of RE7. This tracks with how mainline Resident Evil series games have fit into the timeline, and the events in game generally take place around the same time the game is released. So, it is likely that Resident Evil Village takes place in either 2020 or 2021.
One particularly telling detail fans learn from the Resident Evil Village demo, Maiden, places the lore behind this game much deeper in the history books. In the demo, the player can pick up what is believed to be the Maiden's Diary, which includes three entries all dated 1958. This is the earliest specific date ever mentioned in a note or file that hints at something supernatural, virus-related, or otherwise horrific in a Resident Evil game.
Before this note in RE Village, the start to the Resident Evil canon was 1962, when Oswell Spencer commissioned George Trevor to build the Spencer Mansion and its underground laboratory in the Arklay Mountains outside Raccoon City. This is the event that sets into motion the research that would lead to the T-Virus. To reveal that the RE Village demo, Maiden potentially takes place in the year 1958, or at the very least gives players the strong indication that Lady Dimitrescu and her "daughters" had their powers as far back as 1958. sets a new starting point for the series, and leaves a lot of history to be filled in.
While it should be noted Resident Evil 4's Los Illuminados cult, the Salazar family, and Las Plagas itself are technically older and said to have "existed for centuries" nothing is known about possible activities or bioterror events that occurred during that time. As such, it is hard to nail down any of the specifics on the history of RE4. Resident Evil Village so far feels similar to Resident Evil 4, and the game looks to be introducing a number of new elements to the timeline like RE4 did.
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At this time, what is not known is what exactly happened in the intervening years between Resident Evil 7 & Resident Evil Village. The developers have revealed that Ethan returned to a "quiet life" with wife Mia, but clearly Umbrella and other nefarious organizations were working on something. Ethan's confusion when confronting Chris in RE Village's second trailer and Chris' change in demeanor indicate that a lot has happened during those "quiet" years.
What is also uncertain at this time is how any of this connects to the central throughline of the franchise. With Resident Evil 4 (particularly when it was first released), the shift to a European setting and a different kind of infection method caught many fans by surprise. The same seems to hold for Resident Evil Village here, as the location is new, the enemy types are somewhat unique, yet clearly there are connections to Umbrella, based on what has been shown in the trailers thus far. When the four families of RE Village (Dimitrescu, Moreau, Beneviento, Heisenberg) began working with Umbrella, and to what extent, remains unknown at this time.
If in fact the demo for RE Village is set in 1958, and Lady Dimitrescu and her "daughters" already possessed their powers back then, there is a lot of time between the demo and the present-day setting of Resident Evil Village that will need to be explained. With the various additions to the series canon, the franchise has slowly been revealing more details about Umbrella Europe's operations, including a retcon of sorts that explains how Resident Evil 3's Nemesis was developed in a European lab. There seems to be plenty of space to flesh out what was going on over in Europe, while Spencer, James Marcus, and Edward Ashford were conducting their virus research in America (and Antarctica) during the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
Some of the founders of Umbrella were from noble European families, meeting at an, as of yet, unspecified university in the early 1950s. While the Spencer, Ashford, & Beardsley families were British, another person with close ties to Umbrella was a French nobleman, Count Henry. While little is known about Henry, the fact that there were other Europeans with connections to Umbrella, around the time that Resident Evil Village's Maiden demo appears to be set, could point to some deeper connections between the Dimitrescu family and the founders of Umbrella.
At this point, there are still more questions than answers. Fans are still in shock about Chris' sudden heel turn from long-running hero to violent murderer. As messy as Resident Evil lore can be, somehow Resident Evil Village will fit itself into the timeline. Just how deeply connected the game will be remains to be seen, and fans will have to wait until the game is out to figure out where RE8 and its characters lie on that timeline.
Resident Evil Village will be released May 7 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.