According to the NX on Netflix Twitter account, the Netflix anime series "Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness" will be part of the official Resident Evil canon.

Details have yet to be revealed, but the wording seems pretty clear, especially since the official Capcom USA and Resident Evil series Twitter accounts are tagged in the tweet.

While this is great news for lore fans (of which I am embarrassingly one), canon is a somewhat unwieldy subject when it comes to Resident Evil. Even though Capcom keeps a tight rein on what is and is not canonical, the timeline of the series is not without confusion. For example, neither Chris nor Jill can end with all of the correct characters alive, making it impossible to play the original game canonically. On the other hand, the recent remakes of "Resident Evil 2" and "Resident Evil 3" are considered canonical alongside the original, despite the significant differences between the two games.

A look at the "What is canon?" page on the Resident Evil Wiki reveals that the extensive official Resident Evil canon includes such unusual works as three stage plays (one of which is a musical); three CGI films ("Damnation", "Degeneration" and "Vendetta") are also canon. The live-action films, however, are not. Both the six films in Paul W.S. Anderson's film franchise and the recently announced reboot film are included. On second thought, perhaps the news was best constrained by the necessary brevity of a tweet.

The news was also accompanied by a new image showing the character designs of the series' stars, Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield. While this is not the first unveiling of the two, as they were already shown in last month's trailer, these still images provide a more detailed look at each of their new appearances.

Players who got to know the characters from last year's "Resident Evil 2" remake may be surprised to see their slightly different appearances from the game version. Leon and Claire are both good-looking, but I have to admit that I was momentarily surprised to see two very different and attractive people with the same hairstyles and iconic jackets. The main cast of "Reg" has been redesigned many times over the years as different artists have worked on the franchise. Leon, in particular, looks a bit older and more muscular than his recent RE2 fresh face. This may be reading a little too much into a perfectly normal redesign, but since he and Claire are referred to here as "veteran zombie slayers," it is not unreasonable to assume that we are looking at a slightly more mature, battle-hardened version of the duo.

It is still unclear when "Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness" will be available on Netflix, with 2021 being the most release year known so far.