At first glance, Zach Cregger's upcoming Resident Evil movie doesn't have much in common with the games. After all, the franchise's badass leads—Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield, for example—have been sidelined in preference for Bryan, a newly created, hapless survivor.
However, Cregger is clearly a huge fan of the long-running video game franchise, as the trailers have been packed with references, deep-cut Easter Eggs, and familiar nightmare-inducing monsters.
As we first reported on FearHQ.com, tickets for Resident Evil are now on sale, and with that comes some new posters for the Resident Evil reboot (which looks vastly better than its poorly received predecessors). A popcorn bucket has also been revealed, and it ranks among the year's most unique and gruesome efforts.
All signs, meanwhile, point to the movie getting off to a strong start at the box office. Current projections indicate an impressive $40 million to $50 million start in North America. Even if it comes in on the lower end, that's bigger than any of the Milla Jovovich-led Resident Evil movies.
2010's Resident Evil: Afterlife managed to debut with a franchise-best $26.6 million, though the most recent effort—Welcome to Raccoon City—only managed to kick off its run in 2021 with a dismal $5 million. Between this being an original story and the goodwill Cregger has coming off the back of Weapons, it seems audiences are excited to show up for this new take.
"They were kind enough to hear me out and let me run with it," Cregger previously said. "It’s really a Zach Cregger movie that just happens to be a Resident Evil movie."
"It feels like one gigantic sequence. Things pop off about five minutes in, and it basically stays like that until the end," he continued. "What I love about the games is that you move from set-piece to set-piece. Every location has a unique challenge. So again, I’m borrowing from the games directly in that rhythm, where you’re just running through a gauntlet."
From the mind of visionary filmmaker Zach Cregger (Weapons, Barbarian) comes a thrilling — and terrifying — reinvention of the Resident Evil franchise. In an all-new story, Resident Evil follows Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier who unwittingly finds himself in an action-packed, non-stop race for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos.
The cast also includes Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, and Paul Walter Hauser. Cregger directs from a screenplay he wrote with Shay Hatten, and producers include Robert Kulzer, Zach Cregger, Roy Lee, Miri Yoon, Carter Swan, and Asad Qizilbash. The executive producers are Oliver Berben, Victor Hadida, Richard Wright, and Robert Bernacci.
Resident Evil is set to be released in theaters on September 18.