Weapons director Zach Cregger is set to make his mark on the Resident Evil franchise with his own cinematic take on the popular horror franchise, and today we got our first proper peek at what that'll look like with the film's first teaser trailer.
The trailer reveal also arrived alongside Cregger diving a little more into his thought process on developing the film in different interviews, particularly answering why he didn't just try and adapt a pre-existing Resident Evil story.
"I wanted to tell a story that could take place in the Resident Evil world, but wasn't telling a story that the games had already told. To me, I would feel like there's kind of no winning there if I were to tell Leon's story, because the games do such a great job," Cregger said in a PlayStation Blog interview.
What Cregger is honoring from the games instead, is the narrative structure they follow. Specifically the pattern of following one character through multiple locations, and how they manage their resources to enhance their chances of survival.
"What's important to me, that I'm honoring from the games, is the narrative structure and following one character from point A to point B, and the concern with resource management, ammunition conservation," Cregger told IGN in an interview. "We start with a pistol, we graduate to a shotgun, we graduate to an MP5, and things are just getting progressively more intense, and we're encountering weirder and weirder monsters."
Though Cregger talks about graduating from one weapon to another, the film's main character Bryan, played by Austin Abrams, is by no means equipped to use any of those firearms. Cregger describes him as a fairly normal guy, with the inspiration behind him being the idea that "he's just a good natured, hapless dude who gets sucked into a nightmare," he told PlayStation Blog.
Cregger said he's "what I expect the average video game player would react if they were thrust into the game themselves. He's just a normal guy."
It'll be interesting to watch the film with that thought in mind. Knowing that Bryan's actions are a direct reflection of how the average gamer might react in the kind of nightmare situations depicted in Resident Evil. The film premieres on September 18, 2026.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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