RESIDENT EVIL Director Explains Why His Movie Is More Faithful to the Games Than Previous Adaptations

When the trailer for Resident Evil dropped, some fans started debating one major question: How can you make a Resident Evil movie without focusing on characters like Chris Redfield, Leon Kennedy, or Jill Valentine?

It's a fair question, especially considering how closely those characters are tied to the franchise. But director Zach Cregger believes fans might be looking at faithfulness to the games from the wrong angle.

Instead of recreating a familiar story or bringing back fan-favorite heroes, he's aiming to capture something he feels previous adaptations have always missed: what it actually feels like to play a Resident Evil game.

Rather than following an established game storyline, Resident Evil centers on Bryan, played by Austin Abrams, a struggling medical courier who unknowingly ends up transporting a highly classified item to Raccoon City on what quickly turns into the worst night of his life.

It's definitely a different setup than longtime fans were expecting, and it's sparked plenty of discussion online. During Comic-Con, Cregger addressed those concerns while explaining why he believes his movie is actually closer to the spirit of the games than any previous live-action adaptation.

“Well, to me, it’s the games; I haven’t seen a movie that delivers on the experience I get when I play the games,” Cregger said when asked why his Resident Evil will offer something fresh.

“And the games… yes, they have zombies in them, but it’s really about atmosphere and the environment and the tension. And the survival-horror aspects are so cinematic, but I feel like they’ve never been represented in a movie.

“I mean, there’s been a lot of Resident Evil movies, but none of them really feel like survival-horror, right? And so, to me, it was just a really exciting opportunity to kind of try and do justice to the games.”

It's an interesting perspective. The live-action Resident Evil movies directed by Paul W.S. Anderson started as loose adaptations before evolving into full-on action spectacles starring Alice. Netflix also took a swing with its 2022 series, while the animated films leaned heavily into established game characters like Leon Kennedy and expanded the existing lore.

Cregger isn't trying to compete with those versions by retelling the same stories. Instead, he's focusing on the slow-building dread, exploration, and survival horror that made the games iconic in the first place.

He's also excited about finally embracing one of the franchise's biggest strengths beyond the undead. “It’s not just zombies, you know. It’s a T-virus. It’s not like [George] Romero, like, ‘ Hell is full. So now the dead walk the Earth.’

“Anything biological is going to be mutating and affected by this virus in a weird way. And so it lets you kind of go beyond just a zombie.”

That opens the door for some truly disturbing creature designs, and from what we've already seen, Cregger isn't holding back.

He continued: “There are things I can’t really talk about because I don’t want to spoil them. But like, there’s a lot of unique mechanics in this movie that still play within the rules of the Resident Evil games. But you haven’t seen before, I think, and I’m really proud of and excited for people to see.”

The footage released so far certainly backs that up. We've already caught glimpses of a massive grotesque man lurking in a sewer, along with a horrifying creature formed from multiple human bodies fused together. According to Cregger, that nightmare will continue evolving as it relentlessly hunts Bryan throughout the movie.

That setup is much closer to the feeling of working your way through a Resident Evil campaign than assembling a team of familiar heroes to fight monsters. It's about surviving impossible odds, constantly running low on options, and desperately trying to stay alive while every new hallway could introduce something even worse.

Whether fans embrace that approach remains to be seen, but Cregger clearly isn't trying to make another action-heavy Resident Evil adaptation. His goal is to deliver the tension, atmosphere, and terrifying unpredictability that players have been experiencing for decades.

We'll find out if he succeeds when Resident Evil hits theaters on September 18, 2026.

Source: ComicBook