After Barbarian and Weapons, Zach Cregger probably could have spent the next few years fielding offers from studios with a dusty horror franchise in the closet, just waiting to shake it off and send it back to the new horror movie schedule. But his upcoming Resident Evil movie was not some corporate assignment that landed on his desk. According to Cregger, he went after it himself, which already makes me more interested in what he is building. Now, to make matters more interesting, he is opening up about the hero of his 2026 movie release, and I totally understand why his adaptation cannot just be like the game.
In an interview with Empire, Cregger explained that he approached the rights holders with his own idea for a movie set inside the world of the games. The filmmaker described it as “a Zach Cregger movie that just happens to be a Resident Evil movie,” which, as a huge fan of his work and this video game, is exactly what I want to hear. But it was his description of the movie’s lead character, Bryan, played by Austin Abrams, that made the whole approach click:
