As Zach Cregger prepares to bring Resident Evil to the big screen once again, he’s venturing outside the canon for a new story.
The director, who is rebooting the franchise for Sony, recently explained that although he’s “not breaking the rules of the games,” the movie depicts a story “outside of the characters of the games.”
“I am the biggest worshiper of the games, so I’m telling a story that is a love letter to the games and follows the rules of the games,” he told Inverse.
“It is obedient to the lore of the games, it’s just a different story,” added Cregger. “I’m not going to tell Leon’s story, because Leon’s story is told in the games. [Fans] already have that.”
At CinemaCon in March, Cregger echoed teased that his adaptation is “built in the spirit of those games and follows one central protagonist from point A to point B, as they descend deeper into hell.”
Co-written with Shay Hatten, Cregger’s Resident Evil landed at Sony in March. Meanwhile, Austin Abrams is in talks to star in the reboot.
“I’ve been a rabid fan of these games for decades, and to be able to bring this amazing title to life is a true honor,” he told Deadline at the time.
Based on the 1996 Capcom video game, Resident Evil has been adapted into seven movies since 2002, including a 2021 reboot, surpassing $1.2 billion at the box office. In 2022, Netflix canceled its Resident Evil series after one season.
The post Zach Cregger Explains His ‘Resident Evil’ Is “A Different Story” But “A Love Letter To The Games” appeared first on Deadline.
