Leon

Zach Cregger’s forthcoming Resident Evil film will be an “entirely original story”, so won’t feature fan-favourite character Leon Kennedy.

The director of recent horror-hit Weapons spoke with Entertainment Weekly about his next film, based on Capcom’s game series.

“When you watch it, you’ll be like, ‘This is very Zach’,” he said. “It’s just [that] it takes place in the Resident Evil world. I don’t think fans of the games are gonna be bummed.”

Weapons star Austin Abrams will lead the Resident Evil film cast, with actor and professional wrestler Paul Walter Hauser also confirmed. Cregger has co-written the script with Shay Hatten.

“I’m not gonna steal Leon and put him in an original story. I think that would be presumptuous,” said Cregger. “But I respect the games enough where I’m gonna like tell a Resident Evil story in the Resident Evil canon that still leaves everything they love intact from the games, you know what I mean?”

He added: “I think that when you see it, you’ll understand how I can be obsessed with original ideas and still make a movie that is an IP-based thing. I know that doesn’t make a lot of sense now, but I hope that it will later.”

In a previous interview, Cregger stated the film “lives” in the world of Resident Evil 2 and 3, but “adheres more to the tone of 4”. What’s more, the viewing experience will be akin to the journey players take in the game, following a protagonist from A to B “as they just descend deeper and deeper and deeper into hell”.

Cregger’s Resident Evil film is set for a release on 18th September 2026.

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Zach Cregger is on a roll. The writer and director of 2022’s Barbarian and this year’s Weapons now has two solid horror hits under his belt, and is in pre-production on his next one: a Resident Evil movie planned for 2026.

That’s good news for Resident Evil fans who might otherwise be a bit wary about yet another new Resi movie—the film franchise was already rebooted once, just four years ago, with the thoroughly mid Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Cregger’s track record, though based on a small sample size (at least when it comes to feature films) is a good reason to be optimistic.

And for those wondering which game and characters this new Resi movie will be based on, it looks like the answer is: none of them.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Cregger confirmed that while the 2026 film will take place in the Resident Evil universe, “It’s an entirely original story,” instead of being based on any one specific game. Cregger is also steering away from major Resident Evil characters like Leon S. Kennedy.

“I’m not gonna steal Leon and put him in an original story. I think that would be presumptuous,” Cregger told EW. “But I respect the games enough where I’m gonna tell a Resident Evil story in the Resident Evil canon that still leaves everything they love intact from the games, you know what I mean?”

I think I know what he means. When using a character people are already familiar with, like say Master Chief in the recent Halo TV series, you run the risk of disappointing people who have expectations of that character, like when you show his naked butt, or when he has sex. A safer and more creative approach is to handle it like the Fallout series, which creates mostly original characters and sets them loose in a familiar world.

Both Barbarian and Weapons are effective not just because they’re scary, but because they’re intriguing. By presenting the story of both films from the perspective of different characters and jumping around in time, we don’t get all the information in a linear fashion, which gives both movies a fun sense of mystery. At other times we get information before certain characters do, too, and then we’re left dreading the horrible things we know are coming their way.

I’m curious if and how Cregger will use similar methods in his Resident Evil movie.

“I think that when you see it, you’ll understand how I can be obsessed with original ideas and still make a movie that is an IP-based thing,” Cregger said. “I know that doesn’t make a lot of sense now, but I hope that it will later.”

Cregger’s Resident Evil movie is scheduled to be released, wow, exactly one year from today, on September 18, 2026. Confirmed in the cast is Austin Abrams, who played the role of James, the drug-addict, in Weapons, and Paul Walter Hauser, who played Ed in this year’s The Naked Gun and Mole Man in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

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Weapons director’s Resident Evil film will be “entirely original story”, so don’t expect Leon Kennedy to make a star appearance

Weapons director says his Resident Evil movie will leave everything ‘intact’ from the games: ‘I’m not gonna steal Leon and put him in an original story’