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, director of Weapons and Barbarian, was given complete “carte blanche to do whatever he wanted” with the Resident Evil franchise.

Cregger’s upcoming Resident Evil movie adaptation is not expected to feature any familiar characters, or adapt any specific Resident Evil game — a departure from the series’ previous big screen adaptations that have featured famous faces such as Leon S. Kennedy and Chris Redfield, and repeatedly retold the various games’ plots.

Most fans will be familiar 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 in the 2016 movie Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. The series was then rebooted in 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 on board and given the green light to go in a very different direction.

“With Resident Evil, we have had an incredible journey with one of the most successful international IPs of more than a billion dollars in box office for many years,” Oliver Berben of production company Constantin Film told Deadline. “Now we are creating something new, not just a new story idea, but to allow a new generation to take the IP into their own hands and form something different.”

Discussing the project’s current editing process in more detail, Berben said the movie was notable for being “far away from everything that is connected to Resident Evil, only because Zach Cregger has his own style.”

Speaking about the project last year, Cregger himself said his movie would be “obedient to the lore of the games,” but also a different story from anything shown in Capcom’s franchise previously. “I’m not going to tell Leon’s story, because Leon’s story is told in the games,” he said. “[Fans] already have that.”

Cregger is writing and directing the movie, which is currently set to launch on September 18, 2026, with Euphoria and Wolfs actor Austin Abrams and Fantastic Four: The First Steps’ Paul Walter Hauser lined up to star.

Back in the world of Resident Evil video games, we’re just a week away from the launch of the highly-anticipated Resident Evil Requiem — and yes, spoilers are already out there after early copies leaked.

Image credit: Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social