After making Barbarian and Weapons, both of which became overnight sensations, director Zach Cregger is still determined to make original horror movies. It just so happens that his next one is set in the world of Resident Evil.
“It’s an entirely original story,” Cregger shares with Entertainment Weekly about the upcoming film, based on the popular video games. “When you watch it, you’ll be like, ‘This is very Zach.’ It’s just [that] it takes place in the Resident Evil world. I don’t think fans of the games are gonna be bummed.”
The filmmaker speaks with EW for the upcoming home release of Weapons. Austin Abrams, one of his stars from that movie, will lead the cast of Resident Evil. Paul Walter Hauser, who recently appeared as Mole Man in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, also joined the cast.
Cregger co-wrote the script with Shay Hatten.
Capcom
Leon S. Kennedy in ‘Resident Evil 4’ remake
“I’m not gonna steal Leon and put him in an original story. I think that would be presumptuous,” Cregger continues, referring to fan-favorite Resident Evil character Leon S. Kennedy. “But I respect the games enough where I’m gonna like tell a Resident Evil story in the Resident Evil canon that still leaves everything they love intact from the games, you know what I mean?”
Cregger admits he can’t say too much about it at this stage, but says, “I think that when you see it, you’ll understand how I can be obsessed with original ideas and still make a movie that is an IP-based thing. I know that doesn’t make a lot of sense now, but I hope that it will later.”
In terms of the character Abrams plays, Cregger only teases, “He’s so right for the role in Resident Evil.”
Cregger knew Abrams was his kind of actor when he saw the 29-year-old on screen in the 2017 dramedy Brad’s Status, playing the son of Ben Stiller’s character. “How is this kid so good and so effortless?” the director remembers thinking. “I’ve never seen him before. I’ve always been looking for him, and anytime he’d pop up in anything, I was just like, ‘He’s doing it again!'”
He describes his time with Abrams in Weapons, in which he played a drug-addicted homeless guy, as “a total blast.”
Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.
Austin Abrams as James in ‘Weapons’
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“Austin and I just had a wicked time together where every shot he’d run over and we watched the playback and just cackle,” Cregger remembers. “There was a charge in the air that is really fun.”
Resident Evil is on the calendar for release on Sep. 18, 2026. Plot details are tightly under wraps, as it was with Cregger’s past two horror ventures. The various games focus on different characters, but the original concept was a survival-horror premise involving a zombie-like outbreak caused by the Umbrella Corporation.
The original Milla Jovovich-led movie series are still the most notable of the Resident Evil adaptations. A 2021 film, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, sought to change it up by more closely adapting the events of the games, though it did not make much of an impression at the box office.
Netflix then released a live-action drama based on the concept in 2022, but it did not make it past one season.
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