Zach Cregger has called his upcoming Resident Evil film "definitely the most violent thing I've done." In an exclusive interview with Empire, published 27 July 2026, the director behind Barbarian and Weapons laid out a vision for the franchise that sounds unlike any Resident Evil movie before it. "You gotta go grotesque," Cregger said. "I wanted to go all the way. So it's gnarly. It's brutal. A very bloody affair." Empire

The film, produced by Sony and co-written by Cregger and Shay Hatten, is an original story set in the world of Capcom's long-running survival-horror game series. Austin Abrams (Euphoria, The Walking Dead) plays Bryan, a medical courier working in Raccoon City — the fictional Midwestern town at the centre of the games' zombie outbreak. Early in the story, Bryan receives news that his girlfriend is pregnant. Cregger described the result as following "one dude's journey on foot, fighting monsters." Variety

That grounded premise is deliberate. Cregger said the film is not interested in explaining the Umbrella Corporation — the shadowy pharmaceutical company behind the games' bio-weapons — or how the T-virus, the fictional pathogen that turns people into monsters, actually works. Instead, the focus stays narrow and relentless. The film "steps on the gas at about eight minutes in and never takes our foot off the floor," he said.

What makes the project unusual is how personal it is. Cregger told Empire the film is autobiographical, reflecting what he has been dealing with privately. His previous film, Weapons, served as an outlet for his grief; this one wrestles with a question he frames as urgent: whether it is right to bring a child into a world that seems to be getting worse. That anxiety sits at the centre of Bryan's story — a courier navigating a collapsing city with the knowledge that he is about to become a father.

Cregger has also been candid about his creative ownership of the project. In a June 2026 Facebook post from Empire, he described the film as "a Zach Cregger movie that just happens to be Resident Evil." Empire via Facebook The rights attracted competition: according to The Hollywood Reporter, producer Michael De Luca attempted to acquire the project but lost out to Sony. The Hollywood Reporter

The Resident Evil franchise is one of gaming's most adapted properties, with seven live-action and animated films released since 2002. Cregger's take would be the first to carry a single director's authorial signature rather than functioning as a franchise instalment in the traditional mould.

For fans of the games, the promise is a Raccoon City that feels dangerous again — stripped of exposition, heavy on creatures, and built around a character whose stakes are emotional as much as physical.

Empire's full Resident Evil feature, written by Ben Travis, appears in the Rings of Power Season 3 issue, on sale Thursday 30 July. The film releases in cinemas from 18 September 2026.