Zach Cregger, who’s become widely regarded as one of the breakout directors in modern horror, is helming the next Resident Evil, set to premiere in theaters next month. After Weapons and Barbarian, the guy’s earned some trust with a big horror franchise. But there’s been a bit of concern within the Resident Evil community about his take on Capcom’s beloved series. If you’re curious about the movie, we’re here to break down everything we know so far.
So what’s the new Resident Evil movie about?
Resident Evil stars Weapons actor Austin Abrams as Bryan, a medical courier set to make an organ delivery into Raccoon City, famously known as the setting of Resident Evil 2’s outbreak. As the trailer reveals, he’s en route to Raccoon City and arguing with his girlfriend over the phone when he accidentally runs over a woman on the snowy road who, despite striding into the roadway, appears to have been dead before she was struck. As Bryan searches for help and a phone he can use, he heads to a seemingly abandoned house, and then faces the horrors of the undead. Just how much of the film takes place in that house, however, or what other developments may occur, we don’t know at this point.
That sounds like Resident Evil, but where are Leon, Chris, and all my other faves?
Unless Cregger and co. have been keeping their presence in the movie secret for now, none of the usual Resident Evil characters are set to appear in the film. Cregger said he doesn’t have any interest in simply retelling Resident Evil 2’s story, saying it would be “disappointing” and it’s already been done before.
“I wanted to tell a story that could take place in the Resident Evil world, but wasn’t telling a story that the games had already told,” Cregger said in April. “To me, I would feel like there’s kind of no winning there if I were to tell Leon’s story, because the games do such a great job. It would just be kind of redundant, and ultimately, I think, disappointing.”
Wait, if this is during the Raccoon City outbreak, why are there smartphones?
Now that we know Resident Evil doesn’t star any of the characters from the video games, fans have been a bit suspicious of the movie’s inconsistencies with the source material. Bryan has a smartphone, while the original Raccoon City story in Resident Evil 2 took place in the ‘90s, and while it’s snowing in the film, it wasn’t snowing in Raccoon City during the game’s version of the outbreak, either. Well, that’s because Cregger says the movie takes place in the modern day and he made it snow because he thought it was cool.
“It takes place in the snow and in 2026,” he says. “That’s why he has an iPhone, because I took liberties to tell a story I wanted to tell and make the movie look the way I wanted it to look. I am not doing exactly a one-for-one Resident Evil 2 adaptation. There are differences between this movie and the game, so I just want to acknowledge that. I don’t think it makes the movie any worse. I think it looks really fucking cool to have a horror movie set in the snow. I don’t see enough of those. I like it a lot. The snow is an aesthetic decision. If the barrier of entry is whether I do a one-for-one port, then I guess, in that regard, I have failed. But I think the movie is stronger for it.”
Didn’t Cregger say this was supposed to be a parallel story to Resident Evil 2?
Yes, which is why the messaging around this movie has gotten a bit messy for Resident Evil diehards over the past few months.
“Basically my rule for this movie was to just try and try and make a movie that felt like my experience of playing the game that could live in the world of Resident Evil,” Cregger told IGN in April. “I feel like this movie takes place alongside the events of Resident Evil 2. I like to think that everything that’s going on in the police station could be happening in this world. This is just another dude on another mission on the other side of town and like what’s going on with him.”
So if it’s not based on a Resident Evil character or game, what makes it Resident Evil?
Cregger says he wants the experience of watching the film to feel like being thrust into a Resident Evil game as a normal person rather than a Leon Kennedy–style hero who can do sick backflips and bust out one-liners while blowing the heads off an entire horde of zombies, so you’ll see Bryan looking around for game-accurate ammo boxes like an untrained survivor as he attempts to fight off the monsters he meets.
“So I had this idea for a story in the world of Resident Evil, but It’s kind of like me, like if I was dropped into a Resident Evil game. I’m terrible with guns. I wouldn’t know how any of them work. I would miss 99 percent of all of my shots.”
Some of the clips we’ve seen thus far of Bryan scavenging for bullets and supplies are pretty evocative of some of the really survival-centric Resident Evil games, and even Grace’s segments in Resident Evil Requiem. She’s not an experienced survivor, so she stumbles her way through danger and has to make do with whatever useful equipment she can find. Bryan seems to be more that kind of Resident Evil character, rather than a trained professional. In trying to emulate the experience of playing a Resident Evil game in a movie, Cregger also used camera work that is meant to evoke how you move in third-person video games.
Zach Cregger says a lot of his ‘RESIDENT EVIL’ film is shot in a unique third-person way to resemble the video games.
“When Austin looks right, our camera operator swings to look right… it felt like the camera was being psychically controlled by Austin.” pic.twitter.com/izmDiqZd9p
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) July 24, 2026
Didn’t the script for this movie leak?
Yes, and based on what we’ve seen thus far in the first trailers, it does seem to line up with a bit of the script that’s circulating online. If you want to read further and are okay with possible spoilers, we’ve got a breakdown about the parts that seem to confirm the leaked script’s legitimacy.
Who else is in this movie besides Abrams?
Much of Resident Evil appears to find Bryan all on his lonesome, but there are a few other names attached to the movie. Severance star Zach Cherry, boxer and actor Kali Reis, Black Bird actor Paul Walter Hauser, and Twisted Metal actor Johnno Wilson are all playing Umbrella employees. No word on who’s playing any of the infected monsters Bryan will face yet.
When is the movie coming out?
Resident Evil will come to theaters on September 18.
