Resident Evil Timeline: Every Major Event from the Progenitor Virus to Requiem

Resident Evil runs on real-world dates. Most of it happens in a world very like ours from the late 1990s onwards, so a game's in-universe year is usually close to its release year, and the first game, released in 1996, is set in July 1998. This timeline follows Capcom's main continuity: the games, plus the CG films and Netflix's Infinite Darkness, which are set between them. The live-action films, including Zach Cregger's Resident Evil (2026), and the 2022 Netflix series are separate continuities and aren't on it. Where a remake changes something, it's flagged. (Resident Evil; Resident Evil Requiem)

Before Umbrella (1919 to 1966)#

Umbrella's story starts with two discoveries decades apart: a fungus in an Eastern European village and a virus in an African flower.

• 1919: Grieving for her daughter Eva, who had died of the Spanish flu, a woman named Miranda wandered into caves near her village and found the Megamycete, a vast fungal mass. Its spores bonded with her and gave her the power to reshape her body. She became Mother Miranda, the village's priestess, and spent the next century trying to bring Eva back. (Resident Evil Village)
• Mid-20th century: A young Oswell E. Spencer studied under Miranda and learned from her that a living agent could change the human body. A letter in Village ties the idea behind the Umbrella Corporation to a symbol in Miranda's cave. (Resident Evil Village)
• Around 1960: Albert Wesker was born; the first game makes him 38 in 1998. Years later Spencer revealed that he was one of many children raised under the Wesker Project, Spencer's plan to breed a superior class of humans. (Resident Evil; Resident Evil 5)
• 1966: Spencer, the virologist James Marcus and the researcher Brandon Bailey found the Stairway of the Sun flower in the ruins of the Ndipaya kingdom in West Africa and isolated the virus inside it, later named the Progenitor virus. (Resident Evil 5; Resident Evil 0)

Umbrella's rise (1967 to 1997)#

Spencer, Marcus and Edward Ashford turned the find into a pharmaceutical giant, with a secret bioweapons business underneath.

• 1967: The architect George Trevor finished a mansion in the Arklay Mountains for Spencer, built over a secret laboratory. Trevor's wife Jessica and daughter Lisa were taken as test subjects, and Trevor himself died trapped inside the building that November. This became the Spencer Mansion. (Resident Evil (2002))
• 1968: Umbrella was founded as a pharmaceutical company. Edward Ashford died the same year, shortly after the founding. (Resident Evil 5; Resident Evil Code: Veronica)
• 1978: Marcus combined the Progenitor virus with leech DNA and created the t-virus. The same year Wesker and William Birkin began work at the Arklay Laboratory. (Resident Evil 0; Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles)
• 1983: Alexia Ashford, Edward's granddaughter and a child prodigy who already ran research at Umbrella's Antarctic base, injected herself with the t-Veronica virus and went into cold sleep for 15 years, letting it bond with her body. (Resident Evil Code: Veronica)
• 1988: On Spencer's orders, Wesker and Birkin had Marcus shot at Umbrella's training facility in the Arklay Mountains. His leeches lived on. (Resident Evil 0)
• 1990s: Birkin developed the G-virus, in part from samples taken from Lisa Trevor, who had survived years of experiments. Umbrella funded Raccoon City so heavily that it ran the place, and police chief Brian Irons was on its payroll. (Resident Evil (2002); Resident Evil 2)

The Arklay incident (May to July 1998)#

The t-virus got out of the Arklay Laboratory in May. By summer, people were being eaten in the hills outside Raccoon City.

• 11 May 1998: The t-virus leaked inside the Arklay Laboratory under the mansion. Staff were infected one by one, and test creatures escaped into the forest. (Resident Evil (2002))
• May to July 1998: A string of bizarre murders hit the Arklay Mountains, with victims apparently eaten. The Raccoon Police Department's special unit, S.T.A.R.S., was sent to investigate. (Resident Evil)
• 23 July 1998: Bravo Team's helicopter came down in the forest. Its medic, Rebecca Chambers, found the stalled Ecliptic Express train and teamed up with the convict Billy Coen. They fought through the old training facility and destroyed a Queen Leech that carried Marcus's memories. (Resident Evil 0)
• 24 July 1998: Alpha Team, led by Wesker, went in after Bravo. Attacked by dogs, Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Barry Burton and Wesker fled into the mansion. (Resident Evil)
• 24 to 25 July 1998: In the lab under the mansion, Wesker revealed he worked for Umbrella and woke a Tyrant, which ran him through. The survivors set off the self-destruct and escaped by helicopter as the mansion exploded. Wesker survived using a virus Birkin had given him. (Resident Evil; Resident Evil Code: Veronica)

The fall of Raccoon City (September to October 1998)#

Nobody believed the S.T.A.R.S. survivors. Two months later the outbreak came to the city.

• September 1998: Umbrella's security service, including the operative HUNK, shot Birkin in his underground lab to take the G-virus. Dying, Birkin injected himself with it and killed the team. Vials of t-virus broke in the sewers, and rats carried the virus into the city. (Resident Evil 2)
• Late September 1998: The outbreak overran Raccoon City. The Raccoon City Police Department made a last stand at its station. (Resident Evil 2; Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)
• 28 September 1998: Jill tried to escape the city. Umbrella released Nemesis, a Tyrant sent to kill the remaining S.T.A.R.S. members, and she teamed up with Carlos Oliveira of Umbrella's mercenary force. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis; Resident Evil 3 (2020))
• 29 to 30 September 1998: The rookie officer Leon S. Kennedy arrived for his first day and met Claire Redfield, who had come looking for her brother Chris. They protected Birkin's daughter Sherry Birkin and crossed paths with the spy Ada Wong, then escaped on a train under Umbrella's lab as it blew up. (Resident Evil 2; Resident Evil 2 (2019))
• 1 October 1998: Jill and Carlos flew out at dawn, just before the US government's missile destroyed Raccoon City. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis; Resident Evil 3 (2020))

Rockfort Island and Antarctica (December 1998)#

The Raccoon City survivors went after Umbrella themselves. Chris went to Europe, and Claire went looking for him.

• December 1998: Claire was caught breaking into an Umbrella facility in Paris and sent to the prison on Rockfort Island, run by Alfred Ashford. (Resident Evil Code: Veronica)
• Late December 1998: Forces sent by Wesker attacked the island and the t-virus got loose. Claire and fellow prisoner Steve Burnside fled to Umbrella's Antarctic base, where Alexia woke from her sleep. Chris arrived, faced a superhuman Wesker and killed Alexia, while Steve died after being infected with t-Veronica. (Resident Evil Code: Veronica)

Umbrella's fall and its heirs (2002 to 2005)#

Umbrella didn't survive the fallout from Raccoon City. Its research did, and anyone with money could buy it.

• February 2003: Chris, Jill and other anti-Umbrella fighters stormed Umbrella's facility in the Caucasus in Russia. Wesker used the chaos to steal Umbrella's data. (Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles)
• 2003 to 2004: With its secrets out, Umbrella's business was suspended by the US government and the company collapsed. (Resident Evil 4)
• After Umbrella's collapse: The BSAA was set up to fight bioterrorism, later coming under the United Nations. Chris and Jill were among its founding members. (Resident Evil 5)
• 2004: The terrorist group Veltro released bioweapons in the floating city of Terragrigia, which was destroyed by its own solar weapon to stop the outbreak. (Resident Evil: Revelations)
• Autumn 2004: Leon, now a US government agent, went to rural Spain to rescue the President's daughter Ashley Graham from Los Illuminados, a cult controlling villagers with the Las Plagas parasite. He killed its leader, Osmund Saddler, and Ada took a Plaga sample for Wesker. (Resident Evil 4)
• 2005: Jill and Parker Luciani searched the cruise ship Queen Zenobia in the Mediterranean, where Chris and Jessica Sherawat were missing. They exposed the FBC's chief, Morgan Lansdale, as the man behind Veltro and the Terragrigia disaster. (Resident Evil: Revelations)
• November 2005: A G-virus outbreak broke out at Harvardville Airport. Leon and Claire, now working for the aid group TerraSave, survived it together. (Resident Evil: Degeneration)

Wesker's endgame (2006 to 2009)#

With Umbrella gone, Wesker turned on the man who made him.

• 2006: Leon and Claire were caught up in a conspiracy linked to the White House and the Penamstan civil war. (Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness)
• 2006: Chris and Jill tracked Spencer to his estate in Europe and found Wesker had just killed him. Jill tackled Wesker through a window and over a cliff, and both were believed dead. (Resident Evil 5)
• March 2009: Chris and Sheva Alomar of the BSAA's West African branch went to the Kijuju Autonomous Zone. They found Jill alive and under Wesker's control, freed her, and stopped Wesker and the pharmaceutical firm Tricell from spreading the Uroboros virus worldwide. Chris and Sheva killed Wesker in a volcano. (Resident Evil 5)

The C-virus years (2011 to 2015)#

Bioterrorism went global. A new group, the Family, and its leader Derek Simmons were behind the worst of it.

• 2011: Leon went into the civil war in the Eastern Slav Republic, where both sides were using Plagas. (Resident Evil: Damnation)
• 2011: Claire and Barry's daughter Moira, both working for TerraSave, were kidnapped and taken to a prison island run by Alex Wesker, another child of the Wesker Project. Barry came for Moira six months later with a girl named Natalia Korda. (Resident Evil: Revelations 2)
• 24 December 2012: In the Eastern European country of Edonia, Chris's BSAA unit was wiped out by the new C-virus. Chris lost his memory. Sherry, now a government agent, found Jake Muller, Wesker's son, whose blood could make a vaccine. (Resident Evil 6)
• 29 June 2013: US President Adam Benford was infected at a speech in Tall Oaks, and Leon was forced to kill him. (Resident Evil 6)
• 30 June to 1 July 2013: The outbreak spread to Lanshiang in China. Leon, Chris, Jake, Sherry and Ada brought down Simmons, and Chris's partner Piers Nivans died saving him. (Resident Evil 6)
• 2014: Chris, Leon and Rebecca stopped the arms dealer Glenn Arias from releasing a new virus in New York. (Resident Evil: Vendetta)
• 2015: Leon, Chris, Jill, Claire and Rebecca met on Alcatraz during a new t-virus outbreak. (Resident Evil: Death Island)

The Connections and the mould (2014 to 2021)#

A shadowy network called the Connections built bioweapons from the mould, a fungus first found under Miranda's village.

• October 2014: The Connections' bioweapon Eveline, a girl grown from the mould, escaped during transport and wrecked the tanker Annabelle off Louisiana. Mia, a Connections operative escorting her, washed up with her near Dulvey, and the Baker family who took them in were infected. (Resident Evil 7: Biohazard)
• July 2017: Ethan Winters came to the Baker farm in Dulvey after a message from Mia, missing for three years. He fought the Bakers, rescued Mia and destroyed Eveline. Chris arrived at the end with a reformed, anti-bioweapon Umbrella, and later hunted down and killed Lucas Baker. (Resident Evil 7: Biohazard)
• 2017: Ethan was in fact killed by Jack Baker during the incident, though nobody knew it. The mould rebuilt his body. (Resident Evil Village)
• February 2021: Miranda, disguised as Mia, was shot by Chris in the Winters' home in Europe, and Ethan's baby daughter Rose was taken to Miranda's village. Ethan fought through the four lords, including Lady Dimitrescu, killed Miranda and destroyed the Megamycete, dying in the blast. Chris got Mia and Rose out. (Resident Evil Village)

Requiem (2018 to 2026)#

Spencer kept one last secret, and it waited under Raccoon City.

• Before 2018: Spencer took in a foundling baby, Grace Ashcroft, and entrusted her to Alyssa Ashcroft, a journalist who had survived Raccoon City. Alyssa raised Grace as her daughter. (Resident Evil Requiem)
• 2018: A hooded assassin killed Alyssa at the Wrenwood Hotel, near the Raccoon City ruins. Grace, who was with her, survived. (Resident Evil Requiem)
• 2026: Grace, now an FBI analyst, investigated deaths among Raccoon City survivors and was abducted by the former Umbrella scientist Victor Gideon, who believed she was the key to Elpis, Spencer's final creation. Leon, dying from the same lingering infection, went after them into the ruins of Raccoon City. Grace learned that Elpis was a cure, and in the ending where she releases it, it saves Leon. (Resident Evil Requiem)

Resident Evil games in order#

Release order#

1. Resident Evil (1996)
2. Resident Evil 2 (1998)
3. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999)
4. Resident Evil Code: Veronica (2000)
5. Resident Evil (2002), the remake
6. Resident Evil 0 (2002)
7. Resident Evil 4 (2005)
8. Resident Evil 5 (2009)
9. Resident Evil: Revelations (2012)
10. Resident Evil 6 (2012)
11. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2015)
12. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017)
13. Resident Evil 2 (2019), the remake
14. Resident Evil 3 (2020), the remake
15. Resident Evil Village (2021)
16. Resident Evil 4 (2023), the remake
17. Resident Evil Requiem (2026)

Dates, platforms and the spin-offs are in Resident Evil games in order.

Story order#

1. Resident Evil 0, July 1998
2. Resident Evil, July 1998
3. Resident Evil 3, first half, September 1998
4. Resident Evil 2, September 1998
5. Resident Evil 3, second half, 1 October 1998
6. Resident Evil Code: Veronica, December 1998
7. Resident Evil 4, 2004
8. Resident Evil: Revelations, 2005
9. Resident Evil 5, 2009
10. Resident Evil: Revelations 2, 2011
11. Resident Evil 6, 2012 to 2013
12. Resident Evil 7, 2017
13. Resident Evil Village, 2021
14. Resident Evil Requiem, 2026

The CG films fit between the games, and the Resident Evil films guide places every one. For the plot of each game in one place, read Resident Evil story explained.

Where the story stands (2026 and beyond)#

Requiem is the latest point the main games reach. In the ending where Elpis, Spencer's cure, is released, Leon lives and Grace has the truth about her mother's work. (Resident Evil Requiem)

One story goes further ahead. In 2037 Rose Winters, by then a teenager and still carrying the mould her father passed to her, entered the consciousness of the Megamycete to rid herself of her powers and met what was left of Miranda there. She came out alive and visited Ethan's grave. (Resident Evil Village)