The director of the upcoming Resident Evil film has assured fans of the series this adaptation will “rip”, and admits to not actually seeing any of the previous movie attempts as “the games are [his] thing”.
Zach Cregger – whose previous work includes 2022’s Barbarian, which our Matt describes as “wonderfully unpredictable” – was first announced to be helming the next Resident Evil movie in March of this year. Since then, the director has assured fans that his adaptation will be “unlike any of the previous films” in the franchise, which may not exactly be a bad thing.
Now, Cregger has shared a little bit more about what moviegoers can expect on the film’s release, and it sounds like the director will be working with a deep knowledge of the source material. “I love the games,” Cregger told Comic Book. “I played all of the games. I played Resident Evil 4 a hundred times through. I’m obsessed with it. And so, I just want to tell a story that feels like it’s honouring the experience you get when you play the games.”
Cregger added he hasn’t “seen the movies”, because “that’s just not my thing”. The game series, though, well “that’s just a playground I just love,” the director said. “I think the movie is going to rip. I think it’s going to rip”.
Cregger’s latest comments on the Resident Evil film, which is set to star Euphoria actor Austin Abrams (pictured below), come as some plot points have leaked. This is your cue to head elsewhere if you want to keep your next Resident Evil cinema trip as spoiler-free as possible.
According to internet tipster Daniel RPK, Cregger is working from the following synopsis: “Bryan, a laid-back organ courier, is sent on a late-night delivery to Raccoon City General Hospital. En route through a snowy mountain road, he accidentally hits a strange woman with his car
“She survives – but something is very wrong. As he tries to help, Bryan stumbles into a full-blown outbreak involving horrifying tentacle-based mutations and bio-engineered monstrosities” (thanks, Dexerto).
Bryan is reportedly the character Abrams will play. In terms of the game series, the only Brian that comes to mind is corrupt RPD Chief Brian Irons (pictured below), who is an antagonist in Resident Evil 2, but it doesn’t sound like this is the same character. Unless this film will serve as some kind of prequel, backstory type set up for future adaptations, and change the spelling of Bryan’s name.
Cregger’s Resident Evil film is expected to be released on 18th September, 2026.
As for Resident Evil games, we recently got news of the next mainline installment, known as Requiem. Anticipation for this release is already pretty high, as in June Capcom announced over a million of us had already added Resident Evil Requiem to our wishlists.
We got our first look at Resident Evil Requiem last month, when Capcom introduced us all to Grace Ashcroft and a destroyed Raccoon City. The developer once considered having Leon Kennedy take on the protagonist role for Requiem, but in the end decided he was “actually quite a bad match for horror”.