Fresh Resident Evil movie reboot details shamble into view: More brains, less brain-eating?
Director Zach Cregger has teased some deets
Barbarian director Zach Cregger mysteriously announced that the upcoming Resident Evil movie reboot will be “unlike any of the previous films”.
Resident Evil, for those not yet in the know, is a long-running survival horror video game series that’s spawned a tonne of zombie-splatting movies. Though the games have been great, classics even, the movies have historically been… not so good.
Shambling monstrosities, actually. But! They continue to make a bucket load of money — and so hopes are high that a reboot can pair that license to print money with a horror flick that’s actually, you know, watchable.
During Sony Pictures' recent CinemaCon, Cregger revealed: "There's a moment that comes in almost every Resident Evil game where you find yourself in a dark passageway, your health is almost zero and there's no way around,"
"You have to go through but you know there's something awful for you in the darkness."
"That is a thrill that the Resident Evil games have perfected," he added. "My movie will be built in the spirit of those games and follows one central protagonist from point A to point B, as they descend deeper into hell."
The upcoming film will open in theatres in September 2026. It is rumoured to be starring Austin Abrams and is set to start shooting in summer 2025.
Cregger has co-written the script with Shay Hatten, and the production teams on board include Constantin Film, Vertigo Entertainment, and PlayStation Productions.
The German studio Constantin Film originally bought the rights to adapt the series to live action in January 1997. The series has a total of seven films so far, with the upcoming film becoming the eighth installment — though is unlikely to be directly linked to previous adaptations.
The Resident Evil series has grossed over $1.2 billion and was at one point the highest-grossing film series based on a video game, as well as the highest grossing horror film series. It remains the highest-grossing zombie film series, and retains the record for the most live-action film adaptations of a video game.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, “the new project is decidedly on the horror track. It is also said to have elements of a wilderness survival thriller” - so watch this space…
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