The Resident Evil film franchise has grossed over $1.2 billion worldwide since the first film debuted in 2002, but an attempt to reboot it a few years ago floundered. Sony Pictures is trying again, this time tapping Zach Cregger—who wrote, produced, and directed last year’s Oscar-winning horror hit Weapons—for the project. The studio showed the first teaser for Cregger’s Resident Evil during CinemaCon and just released it to the wider public.
When the first Resident Evil game debuted in 1996, it was an immediate commercial and critical success, spawning several sequel games, comics, novels, and a very lucrative film franchise directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and starring Milla Jovovich. But those films were only loosely based on the games, keeping a few primary characters and the basic concept, but little else. Reviews were mixed, despite the films’ massive box office success.
Work on the first reboot started in 2017, eventually producing 2021’s Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Director Roberts Johannes wanted to bring a very different tone to his film. He wanted to stay closer to the Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2 games—even employing the same fixed angles of Spencer Mansion in the first game. Alas, Welcome to Raccoon City was critically panned and had a disappointing box office showing, grossing just $42 million globally against its $25 million budget. The studio nixed its plans for a direct sequel, and a 2022 Netflix series was also canceled after a less-than-stellar first season.
But now it’s Cregger’s turn. According to Cregger, this new film is not a direct game adaptation, but an original story with original characters set in the same fictional universe. He told the audience at CinemaCon that his film will have “no narrative acrobatics, time jumps or disorienting chapter things,” preferring his audience to be “locked in with a protagonist on a foot journey through a world hell-bent on destroying them.” Nor will it be like Weapons; Craggler’s Resident Evil vision, he said, is closer to Evil Dead II. But it would, he said, be “true to the spirit of the games.”
Per the official logline: “Resident Evil follows Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier who unwittingly finds himself in a nonstop race for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos.” Joining Abrams (who also appeared in Weapons) in the main cast are Paul Walter Hauser as Carl; Zach Cherry as Dave; Kali Reis as Pauline; and Johnno Wilson as Max.
The new Resident Evil hits theaters on September 18, 2026.
