Zach Cregger is taking a different approach to adapting Resident Evil. Instead of bringing one of the games’ existing stories directly to the big screen, the filmmaker has created a new survival-horror adventure that aims to capture the feeling of playing Capcom’s iconic franchise. In a new interview with Deadline, Cregger explained that his passion for the games was the main reason he agreed to work with the established IP.
The upcoming movie stars Austin Abrams as a medical courier who encounters the horrifying consequences of the Umbrella Corporation’s T-virus. Sony Pictures has scheduled Resident Evil for a September 18, 2026 theatrical release, with Cregger promising a fast-paced 95-minute horror experience. The filmmaker also discussed The Flood, his upcoming Warner Bros. sci-fi thriller, and the creative process behind both projects.
Zach Cregger Wants Resident Evil to Feel Like Playing the Games
Cregger’s connection to Resident Evil began while he was working on Barbarian. Producer Roy Lee asked him which video game franchise he would want to adapt, and Cregger immediately answered Resident Evil. At the time, however, he had not yet established himself as a major filmmaker, so he initially had little expectation that the project would become a reality.
After Barbarian became a success, Cregger pitched his vision for the franchise. He wanted to move the movie firmly into survival horror while telling a completely new story. As he clarified to Deadline, 4
“it’s an original story, but it’s still a Resident Evil story.”
Rather than adapting a specific game, he wanted to create the kind of movie he would personally want to watch as a fan.
Cregger also approached the movie differently from his previous films Barbarian and Weapons. Instead of relying heavily on unusual narrative structures, he wanted to follow one central character through a relentless nightmare. His goal was to “floor it at minute six and not take my foot off the gas,” creating a movie that maintains its momentum for most of its runtime.
Austin Abrams was another deliberate choice. Cregger said he had been impressed by Abrams since Brad’s Status and became convinced of his potential while making Weapons. When Resident Evil began taking shape, Abrams was reportedly the filmmaker’s immediate choice for the lead.
Cregger’s next major project, The Flood, came from an equally intense creative impulse. He told Deadline that he was eager to work with Steven Spielberg and had roughly five days to develop an idea that could potentially bring them together. While watching a movie featuring an abandoned spaceship, his wife remarked that there was nothing scarier than being trapped in space, giving Cregger the spark he needed.
The filmmaker said the entire concept for The Flood suddenly came together in his mind. He described the experience as a creative frenzy unlike anything he had experienced before, eventually writing the project alongside Resident Evil.
Cregger is also attached to Siren Head with Brian Duffield and is involved with the Weapons prequel Gladys. However, he says he is not interested in chasing franchises simply because they are commercially valuable. For him, the deciding factor remains whether a story is compelling enough to justify spending years bringing it to the screen.
