Resident Evil Movie Director Knows Fans Of The Games May Not Be Happy
Overview & Key Takeaways
Weapons and Barbarian director Zach Cregger's upcoming Resident Evil movie, which he also wrote, does not adapt any of the game stories or feature characters from the games. Cregger has now explained why he wanted to a make a movie inspired by the games but not necessarily based on them, why re-telling Leon's story wouldn't be a good idea, and how he expects fans of the games to react.
In an interview on the PlayStation Blog, Cregger said that while his movie does not adapt any of the stories from the games, it does follow a similar format. That format is that the movie will follow a character from point A to point B, taking viewers on a "crazy journey" that keeps escalating.
"That feels so cinematic to me. So 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. 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," he said. "It would just be kind of redundant, and ultimately, I think, disappointing. So I would rather just kind of celebrate everything I love about the games by telling the story that could exist on the sidelines of one of the games."
Weapons and Barbarian director Zach Cregger's upcoming Resident Evil movie, which he also wrote, does not adapt any of the game stories or feature characters from the games. Cregger has now explained why he wanted to a make a movie inspired by the games but not necessarily based on them, why re-telling Leon's story wouldn't be a good idea, and how he expects fans of the games to react.
In an interview on the PlayStation Blog, Cregger said that while his movie does not adapt any of the stories from the games, it does follow a similar format. That format is that the movie will follow a character from point A to point B, taking viewers on a "crazy journey" that keeps escalating.
"That feels so cinematic to me. So 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. 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," he said. "It would just be kind of redundant, and ultimately, I think, disappointing. So I would rather just kind of celebrate everything I love about the games by telling the story that could exist on the sidelines of one of the games."
The Resident Evil movie takes place "kind of" in the world of Resident Evil 2, though Cregger said he made a "couple of little shifts for dramatic license."
"I wanted to keep true to like [in the games], you start with a pistol, you graduate to a shotgun, and then eventually you find an MP5. You're always worried about how many bullets you have, and you're getting injured and all those things. So it was such a fun challenge for me to try and write a game as a movie," he said.
Asked for a message he would share with fans of the Resident Evil games, Cregger said he feels "so sensitive" about talking about the film on behalf of fans of the games because he's trying to tell a new story inside the world of Resident Evil. And he knows fans of the games may not like this.
"I think some of the fans are only going to be happy if I tell the story of the games. And I'm not doing that, because I feel like I wouldn't do it justice. I feel like the games do such a great job of telling that story," he said.
Despite the Resident Evil movie's distance from the source material, Cregger said the film will have "a lot of easter eggs" for fans of the games to discover, beyond the aforementioned weapon progression and resource management.
"[Resident Evil] 4 is probably the game I played the most, so I took a lot of healing items, I mimicked them exactly, I put them in the film. I don't want to say [too much], gamers will see it and they'll recognize it. But there's a lot of little visual things and thematic things, there's lots of the games in there, for sure," he said.
The Resident Evil movie stars Austin Abrams, who previously appeared in Cregger's 2025 hit Weapons. The movie releases in theaters on September 18.
For more, check out our thoughts on why it may not be such a big deal that the Resident Evil movie doesn't look like the games.
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