Zach Cregger: The Story and Characters in the Resident Evil Reboot Will Differ from the Video Games
According to the CinemaDrame news agency, Zach Cregger explained in a new interview with Inverse that while his reboot of Resident Evil is a “love letter” to the video games, it will feature a different story and characters.
The filmmaker, whose hit film Weapons is currently in theaters, emphasized in the conversation that his movie “doesn’t break the rules of the games,” but tells a story “outside of those characters.”
He said: “I’m the biggest admirer of the games, so I’m telling a story that’s a love letter to them and follows their rules. It’s obedient to the set of rules the games have—it just has a different story. I’m not telling Leon’s story, because it’s already told in the games.”
At this year’s CinemaCon, Cregger had said: “I’m not trying, by any means, to be completely obedient to the narrative universe of the games. I’m trying to tell a story that feels as authentic as the experience you had playing them. I don’t think I’m breaking any important rule, but I also know that no matter what I make, people online are going to come after me.”
It was previously reported that Austin Abrams, star of Wolfs and Euphoria, is in talks with Sony to play a new character named “Brian.” Shay Hatten is co-writing the screenplay with Cregger.
The Resident Evil film series grossed more than $1.2 billion worldwide from 2002 to 2021. In 2021, Netflix released a series of the same name, which was canceled after one season.
In another interview, with Variety, Cregger said that David Fincher helped him during the production of Weapons: “He’s an incredibly helpful guy. He was available to me during pre-production, and then he was heavily involved during post-production. He saw the movie, gave me very constructive feedback, and had lots of ideas. He helped me learn more about editing and to approach the process with a fresh perspective I didn’t have when making Barbarian.”
He added: “David’s approach to post-production is: ‘It can always be better, and there are so many tools available to you that you might not be thinking about.’ So from reframing to stabilization to ADR and all of those elements, it was incredibly exciting.”
Resident Evil, directed by Zach Cregger, is set for release on September 18, 2026.
