Exclusive: How The New RESIDENT EVIL Movie Fits In With The Games
Zach Cregger, the director behind Barbarian and this year’s smash horror hit Weapons, is getting ready to take the leap into franchise filmmaking. Cregger’s next project is a big screen reboot of Resident Evil, based on the beloved Capcom video game series of the same name. We now have a much better idea of how Cregger’s new movie will exist within the larger universe. While it won’t be adapting any of the games, specifically, it will share a universe with them.
See also: Why Doesn’t Zach Cregger’s BARBARIAN Have A Blu-Ray Release?
I recently had the good fortune of speaking with Cregger in honor of the home video release of Weapons, which is available on Digital platforms now. The Blu-ray, DVD and 4K release is set for October 14. During the conversation, I asked for some clarification regarding his Resident Evil movie, which recently added Paul Walter Hauser (The Naked Gun) to its cast, alongside Austin Abrams, who worked with Cregger on Weapons.
I specifically asked Cregger if his movie is a separate story that exists in the universe alongside the games. “Bullseye. Yeah,” Cregger said. Elaborating on his take on the material, the filmmaker explained how he’s approaching the story, which exists shoulder to shoulder with the much-beloved Resident Evil 2. Just don’t expect to see Leon S. Kennedy at the center of it all.
“I’m not telling Leon’s story. You know what I mean? I’m not using any of the characters from the games. I’m telling my story that exists in the world of Resident Evil 2. You could play 2 and never know that the events of my story are happening right over there, but they are.”
“I’m following the rules, but I’m not claiming any key, canon characters because we have those in the games,” Cregger added. For extra clarification, I asked the director if the game canon exists around the story he’s telling, to which he said, “Yeah.” So there we have it.
Based on Cregger’s comments, it sounds like this will be a similar approach to Sony’s recent Until Dawn movie. That movie absolutely took place in the same world as the game, but centered on a different cast of characters, telling a different story. For various reasons, particularly as it relates to this franchise, that doesn’t seem like a bad approach.
Resident Evil was once a very popular big-screen franchise beginning with the first movie in 2002. The series wasn’t all that faithful to the games but found success for a number of years. On the flipside, 2021’s Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City was very faithful to the early games, yet it didn’t find much success critically or commercially. Letting a guy like Cregger tell an original story in this universe feels like it could be the best of both worlds.
If all goes well, it could open the door to bring in familiar characters such as Leon S. Kennedy in any future sequels, spin-offs, etc. “I’m not going to tell Leon’s story, because Leon’s story is told in the games. [Fans] already have that,” Cregger previously said. He also said at the time that his movie would be “obedient to the lore of the games.” Now, we have a much better idea of what that means, in practice.
Resident Evil hits theaters on September 18, 2026. For more, check out the newsstand cover for FANGORIA #29 featuring Predator: Badlands.
