Zach Cregger Explained Why His Resident Evil Movie Doesn’t Have a Connection to Games

For all Resident Evil fans, this week has been a real treat—a worthy film adaptation of the franchise has finally hit the big screen. The film was directed by Zack Cregger, a horror film specialist who rose to fame largely thanks to last year’s movie called Weapons. That said, his take on Resident Evil is noticeably different from what fans are used to seeing.

As is well known, Zach Cregger's Resident Evil features a delivery man named Brian—played by Austin Abrams—as its protagonist, and the film's events take place in 2026, with the incident in Raccoon City remaining the central focus. Even before the film’s premiere, not all fans approved of this approach—but at the same time, it seems to have actually worked in its favor.

Zack Cregger recently spoke to the BBC, explaining why he decided not to adapt a certain Resident Evil video game for the screen. His reasoning was that the audience would most likely have been dissatisfied with the adaptation anyway, so he decided to take his own approach. You can check out more excerpts from his interview below:

“If I had delivered a faithful retelling of one of the stories in the games, I feel like those people would probably be upset with me for that too. Because I would have messed it up somehow, inevitably. So, all I can do is just tell the story that I think is going to be the very best story. If somebody's going to have a problem that it doesn't do exactly what they had in their mind of what a Resident Evil movie is, I can't say anything to that.”

Most likely, it was the right decision. As of now, Resident Evil has a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the highest-rated film based on the franchise and one of the best video game adaptations. What’s more, the film is performing well at the box office: according to preliminary data, it is expected to gross about $60 million in its first weekend in the U.S., which is a record for both the franchise and Zach Cregger.

Given the franchise’s potential, as well as Zach Cregger’s vision, it will be interesting to see if he continues to work on new Resident Evil films. In a recent interview, the director expressed his opinion that Christina Hendricks should play Lady Dimitrescu on the big screen, and fans took this as a sign he might be considering an adaptation of Resident Evil Village.