Weapons Director Zach Cregger Given 'Carte Blanche to Do Whatever' With Resident Evil, Creating a Movie Not Expected to Feature Any Familiar Story or Characters

Zach Cregger, manager of Weapons and Barbarian, was fixed implicit "carte blanche to bash immoderate helium wanted" with the Resident Evil franchise.

Cregger's upcoming Resident Evil movie adaptation is not expected to diagnostic immoderate acquainted characters, oregon accommodate immoderate circumstantial Resident Evil crippled — a departure from the series' erstwhile large surface adaptations that person featured celebrated faces specified arsenic Leon S. Kennedy and Chris Redfield, and repeatedly retold the assorted games' plots.

Most fans volition beryllium acquainted with the six films directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and starring Milla Jovovich. These adapted bits and pieces of Capcom's Resident Evil games, culminating successful the 2016 movie Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. The bid was past rebooted successful 2021's Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City with a younger cast, though this movie flopped and its intended sequel plans were scrapped.

Now, Resident Evil is being rebooted again, with Cregger connected committee and fixed the greenish airy to spell successful a precise antithetic direction.

"With Resident Evil, we person had an unthinkable travel with 1 of the astir palmy planetary IPs of much than a cardinal dollars successful container bureau for galore years," Oliver Berben of accumulation institution Constantin Film told Deadline. "Now we are creating thing new, not conscionable a caller communicative idea, but to let a caller procreation to instrumentality the IP into their ain hands and signifier thing different."

Discussing the project's existent editing process successful much detail, Berben said the movie was notable for being "far distant from everything that is connected to Resident Evil, lone due to the fact that Zach Cregger has his ain style."

Speaking astir the task past year, Cregger himself said his movie would beryllium "obedient to the lore of the games," but besides a antithetic communicative from thing shown successful Capcom's franchise previously. "I'm not going to archer Leon's story, due to the fact that Leon's communicative is told successful the games," helium said. "[Fans] already person that."

Cregger is penning and directing the movie, which is presently acceptable to motorboat connected September 18, 2026, with Euphoria and Wolfs histrion Austin Abrams and Fantastic Four: The First Steps' Paul Walter Hauser lined up to star.

Back successful the satellite of Resident Evil video games, we're conscionable a week distant from the motorboat of the highly-anticipated Resident Evil Requiem — and yes, spoilers are already retired determination aft aboriginal copies leaked.

Image credit: Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You tin scope Tom astatine [email protected] oregon find him connected Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social