Zach Cregger’s new Resident Evil movie might take place in the same world as the video games, but there’s one pretty major thing missing: none of the games’ main characters are actually in it. The director has now explained why his film still deserves the Resident Evil title. Rather than casting Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield, Cregger’s adaptation centres on an entirely new character named Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier who must fight for survival amid the outbreak. But the story is connected to the Capcom games in a huge way, with its setting being Raccoon City in 1998, running in parallel with the events of Resident Evil 2. It’s a very different approach to previous Resident Evil films, which centered largely on Milla Jovovich’s original character Alice, before eventually bringing in familiar faces from the games. Then 2021’s Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City went much more directly into the game lore, featuring Leon, Claire, Chris and Jill. However, Cregger has deliberately decided against simply retelling a story fans have already played. Cregger knows fans wanted Leon Kennedy, but there’s a reason he’s left out Unsurprisingly, the decision has prompted one pretty obvious question: if you’re not going to use the Resident Evil characters, why make a Resident Evil movie at all? Cregger was asked exactly that during a recent interview shared by Variety. Zach Cregger on not including any of the characters from the video games in his #ResidentEvil movie. pic.twitter.com/xYHaNlVGSJ — Variety (@Variety) September 16, 2026 “I could have. I love the games and I wanted to make a movie that was a celebration of the games,” he replied. “And so there’s not [those] characters in it, but if I’d called this anything else, I think anybody who’d played the games would be like, ‘Can he do that? That’s Resident Evil.’ So no, it has to be Resident Evil. It was written to be Resident Evil.” This is far from the only time the Weapons filmmaker has addressed this. Speaking to Variety Australia earlier this year, he explained, “It is obedient to the lore of the games, it’s just a different story. I’m not going to tell Leon’s story, because Leon’s story is told in the games. [Fans] already have that.” Elaborating on this in a conversation with ScreenRant, he said, “What I’m not doing in this is that I’m not going to cannibalise the characters and the stories that the games already do so well, because I’m not going to be able to improve on Leon. “I feel like Leon exists in the games, and anyone I cast and any haircut I give him or any line of dialogue I make him say, it’s just not going to be Leon because Leon exists.” Cregger later told Empire that trying to “shoehorn” established characters into Bryan’s story would feel “inorganic”, adding, “I have to put the story first and foremost.” Since then, he’s admitted that he may have been a bit “naive” with how badly some players wanted to see Leon’s story properly adapted for the big screen. “I thought that the fans of these games, like me, would be thrilled that somebody was coming along and turning Resident Evil into a survival horror movie,” he told IGN. “I did not really appreciate the sentiment that, ‘We’ve been waiting forever for Leon’s story,’ and I appreciate that. And I’m sorry that that’s not the story that I’m bringing here. I get it. I understand the frustration.” Cregger said he can’t criticise players for feeling that way, given he had similar reservations about previous adaptations that didn’t resemble the version of Resident Evil he loves. But he hopes even sceptical fans will give the film a chance and “feel seen” by just how much of the games has made it into the movie. “This is not just me telling a story and slapping Resident Evil on it so I can get a budget,” he continued. “This is me telling a Resident Evil story. And I understand the resistance. I really do, because I have it myself. But it is coming from a true place of love.” One thing that shines through is that Cregger is a true fan of the games, and it appears his gamble has paid off, if early reviews are anything to go by. At the time of writing, Resident Evil has a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score from the critics, with some dubbing it a horror classic. Thankfully, there’s not long to wait to find out, as it lands in cinemas on Friday, September 18. For all the latest film and TV updates and hot takes, like our Facebook page. Featured image credit: Sony Pictures/Capcom Post navigation Next storyPrevious story
