MOVIE NEWS – Zach Cregger’s new Resident Evil movie deliberately avoids Leon S. Kennedy and the other established heroes from the games. The director believes Capcom’s titles have already told Leon’s story better than a fresh movie version ever could.

Opening in theaters on September 18, 2026, the latest Resident Evil promises one of the video game franchise’s boldest screen reinventions. Paul W. S. Anderson’s earlier adaptations freely used characters and story elements loved by players while taking enormous liberties with the source material. Cregger is moving in the opposite direction, building his film around an entirely original ensemble after previously saying that he wanted to explore territory outside the games’ familiar cast.

Austin Abrams leads the story as Bryan, a medical courier designed to function as the audience’s equivalent of a player avatar inside Raccoon City’s nightmare. At a MovieWeb screening, Cregger explained that he was making survival horror rather than survival action. His goal was to reproduce the games’ slow, creeping dread, their progression from one dangerous set piece to the next, and the constant suspicion that the protagonist has almost enough resources to live—but probably does not.

Cregger also considers the series’ rhythm and tone unusually portable to cinema. Filmmaking itself remains difficult, but the rules of survival horror and the logic of Capcom’s world already provide a structure that can support a new narrative without simply copying an existing game.

Leon’s story will remain in the games

“I don’t think I can tell Leon’s story better than the games tell Leon’s story,” Cregger said.

The decision has disappointed fans hoping to see Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield or Leon S. Kennedy return to live action. The Weapons filmmaker nevertheless sees another adaptation of those heroes and their established plots as a battle he could never win. He would rather celebrate the qualities that make the games special without cannibalizing stories they already handle successfully.

His new plot therefore unfolds in Raccoon City on the eve of the outbreak. The Umbrella Corporation, the T-virus and the universe’s defining rules remain in place, but Bryan’s ordeal develops alongside the familiar events instead of retracing them. Cregger views that unexplored corner of the timeline as more fertile creative ground than another attempt to remake Leon’s adventures.

Leon began as a police officer who survived the first Raccoon City catastrophe and subsequently became one of the franchise’s central figures. Johann Urb portrayed him in the 2012 live-action sequel Resident Evil: Retribution, while Avan Jogia took the role in the 2021 reboot Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.

Cregger’s film introduces original characters with distinct functions and possible gameplay archetypes. The trailers have intentionally kept several of them hidden, and the latest footage only recently offered a first glimpse of Paul Walter Hauser’s mysterious part. The movie has drawn comparisons with the momentum of Mad Max: Fury Road, although a story set so close to the events of Resident Evil 2 may still need to win over viewers who wanted Leon on screen.

Cregger directed the film and co-wrote it with Shay Hatten. Austin Abrams stars alongside Paul Walter Hauser, Kali Reis and Zach Cherry.

Source: MovieWeb