Zach Cregger cut the jokes from Resident Evil after audiences laughed too much
Zach Cregger cut the jokes out of Resident Evil because test audiences told him it was too funny.
The film, directed by Cregger and co-written with Shay Hatten, is released 18 September 2026, with screenings starting a night earlier on 17 September 2026, according to GameSpot.
Cregger directed Barbarian and Weapons. Weapons grossed US$270 million against a US$38 million budget, and Austin Abrams appeared in it before taking the lead in Resident Evil.
This Resident Evil tells a new, original story. It does not retell an existing game narrative, and it does not bring in legacy characters from the games.
Abrams plays Bryan, a medical courier. The plot follows Bryan as he delivers time-sensitive cargo to Raccoon City General Hospital during the T-virus outbreak, the virus at the centre of the series lore.
Test audiences liked the film throughout, Cregger told The Hollywood Reporter. The problem was tone. Viewers found it too funny for a horror story built around an outbreak.
So he stripped out as much of the humour as possible. Cregger said there is not a single joke he removed that he misses.
That choice will divide some viewers. Cregger said: "If I tried to please everybody, I'd end up pleasing nobody."
He also said he underestimated the appetite for legacy character stories, particularly involving Leon S. Kennedy, the police officer turned government agent from the games. Leon will not appear. Cregger said he is not putting any legacy characters from the games into the film.
For fans, this means no familiar faces to track. The connection is the setting, the virus and the hospital run, not returning heroes.
Cregger is a player himself. Resident Evil 4, Capcom's survival horror game about an elite task force battling zombies and bio-weapons, is one of his go-to games. A clip from his film was shown at CinemaCon 2026.
He said Resident Evil will be the first and last franchise he tackles, according to The Hollywood Reporter. His other work includes a prequel film in development about Aunt Gladys, the character played by Amy Madigan in Weapons, and the upcoming science-fiction film The Flood, produced by Steven Spielberg.
