New "Resident Evil" reboot from "Weapons" director coming

Resident Evil, owing to its vicious zombies and grotesque monsters, is a franchise that refuses to stay buried. It just keeps crawling—roaring—back to life.

February’s blockbuster success of the latest game entry, Resident Evil: Requiem, proved there’s still plenty of bite left in the series. The game shattered sales records across PC and consoles by doing something deceptively simple: it finally balanced the franchise’s action and horror into one cohesive package. Not reinventing the wheel—just reminding everyone why it worked in the first place.

Now, as always, Hollywood is taking notice.

Zach Cregger—who broke out with 2021’s Barbarian and doubled down on his horror credibility with 2025’s Weapons—is currently finishing up his take on Resident Evil for Sony Pictures and PlayStation Studios. And if early word from test screenings is to be believed, this might actually be the adaptation fans have been waiting for.

Yes, you’ve heard that before.

Still, the buzz is hard to ignore. Early reactions are calling the film “all gas, no brakes,” with comparisons to George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road—which is about as high-octane a compliment as you can get. Allegedly, the film follows a courier (Austin Abrams) trapped in a Midwestern Raccoon City on the night of an outbreak, turning the story into a relentless, nightmarish descent rather than another lore-heavy retread.

That alone suggests Cregger understands something previous adaptations didn’t: Resident Evil works best when it’s immediate, claustrophobic, and just a little bit mean.

The supporting cast includes Paul Walter Hauser, Kali Reis, and Zach Cherry, with a screenplay by Cregger and Shay Hatten (John Wick), and cinematography by Dariusz Wolski (Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy). On paper, it’s a strong mix of talent—but Resident Evil has had “good on paper” before.

Cregger’s approach is also encouragingly loose. Rather than chaining itself to one specific game, the film reportedly pulls influence from Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, and Resident Evil 4 while telling its own story. That’s probably the smartest move—because strict fidelity has never really been this franchise’s problem.

Execution has.

For weary fans, there is at least one unexpected reason for optimism. Cregger was recently praised by Steven Spielberg, who reportedly said Weapons was so effective it “cured” him of wanting to make a horror film himself. If nothing else, that’s the kind of quote studios dream about putting on a poster.

Of course, Resident Evil has been here before—hyped, rebooted, and reimagined more times than most franchises survive.

It became a household name in the early 2000s thanks to Paul W.S. Anderson’s unhinged, adrenaline-fueled film saga, which followed Alice (Milla Jovovich) through six increasingly chaotic entries. Fans complained (loudly) about the films’ disregard for the games’ lore, and critics were rarely kind—but audiences showed up anyway. The series rode the “action heroine in leather” wave of the era—right alongside Underworld, Æon Flux, and Tomb Raider—all the way to 2016’s The Final Chapter.

Since then, it’s been a mixed bag at best.

Netflix’s Resident Evil series arrived during the pandemic and was quickly dismissed, managing to alienate both fans and newcomers. Around the same time, another film reboot tried the opposite approach—leaning hard into fan service, cramming in characters like Leon, Claire, Jill, Wesker, and Chris while awkwardly blending the stories of the first two games. The result was more faithful, technically—but also a reminder that accuracy alone doesn’t make something good. It performed better with critics, but ultimately flopped where it mattered most: at the box office.

Which brings us back—again—to another reboot, another director, and another round of cautious optimism.

Cregger’s Resident Evil is set for release on September 18, and for once, there’s a sense that the franchise might actually evolve instead of just mutate. Then again, this series has made a career out of false starts and second chances.

But if the early reactions are even half true, this might finally be the one that doesn’t just come back to life—

—but actually has a pulse