The people yearn for a no-frills adaptation of the Resident Evil franchise, but Zach Cregger probably won’t be the one to make it.
The director of Barbarian and Weapons is inarguably the best choice to helm a live-action remake of Resident Evil, Capcom’s gnarly survival horror franchise. His recent films already feel like love letters to the games; when he was named as the director of a new Resident Evil film, most assumed (or hoped) that he’d know just what to do to bring the saga back to basics. Elements of the games have been adapted loosely on-screen, but fans are yearning for a more faithful version of the story they know and love — one that, ideally, involves legacy characters like Jill Valentine or Leon S. Kennedy, a particular fan favorite.
As much as Cregger may love those characters, though, he has been adamant that his Resident Evil film will tell “a different story” within the world of the saga.
“Let me say this: this is not breaking the rules of the games,” Cregger tells Inverse. “I am the biggest worshiper of the games, so I’m telling a story that is a love letter to the games and follows the rules of the games.”
That said, Cregger won’t be retelling any story within the saga. Though it will align with Resident Evil lore, Cregger’s film is firmly “outside of the characters of the games.”
“It is obedient to the lore of the games, it’s just a different story,” Cregger continues. “I’m not going to tell Leon’s story, because Leon’s story is told in the games. [Fans] already have that.”
Creggers comments align with recent updates from industry leakers, who’ve suggested that his Resident Evil will feature a new original character, similar to Milla Jovovich’s role in the first film franchise. If that troubles fans who were hoping to get Leon’s adventures in live-action — and with a touch more fealty than 2021’s Welcome to Raccoon City — Cregger has a simple solution: “They can play the game.”
Cregger is assured in his approach, but the fact that he’s following in the footsteps of the 2000s film series might not instill fans with much confidence. It also speaks to a growing trend for game adaptations: most would rather tell an original story set in the world of the games than adapt one that already exists. But that strategy is a double-edged sword. The Resident Evil remake will probably have no problem attracting new fans or novices curious about the property, but longtime lovers of the games also deserve the chance to see the characters they’ve played come to life in a different way.
This newfound aversion to straightforward stories is admittedly odd, especially with the success of HBO’s bar-for-bar remake of The Last of Us. The series effectively broke the “video game curse” by adapting the Naught Dog game as-is, with only minimal changes to its story (in its first season, at least). The new Resident Evil film, meanwhile, will adhere to the status quo, and it could be worse for it. Of course, Cregger may surprise us, but given Resident Evil’s checkered history on screen, surprise is the last thing fans seem to want.
