First Resident Evil Movie Will Be Zack Cregger's Last

Zack Cregger will never make another franchise film after the first Resident Evil movie. It's the end for him. The director, who brought us the 2025 horror hit Weapons, has confirmed that his upcoming adaptation of Capcom's survival horror series marks his final chapter working with established intellectual property. His vision of Raccoon City hits theaters on September 18, but Cregger's already looking past it, and that's fine with him. So don't expect him to linger.

For Cregger, the decision comes down to creative freedom, plain and simple. He wants to write stories that spring from his own imagination, not ones chained to pre-existing lore where every corner hides a corporate checkbox waiting to be ticked. “I don’t want to write something where I have to make sure I’m tagging different data points to satisfy X,” he said. “I just want to satisfy me.” So that attitude defined his earlier work on Barbarian and Weapons, both original projects with no oversight breathing down his neck. It’s a rare stance. But it’s his.

A Director Done With Franchise Rules

The admission marks a sharp pivot for a filmmaker currently steering one of gaming's most beloved horror properties. But Cregger insists he isn't half-committing. He's laser-focused on delivering something that resonates with the fanbase, even if his methods have sparked controversy, and he's clearly betting that his own instincts as a lifelong player will guide him through the minefield of expectations. “I think this movie is cool, and I hope it checks the fan boxes because I’m a fan and I’m checking my boxes,” he explained. He's making the Resident Evil movie he wished existed. That's the whole pitch.

That sentiment has done little to calm the fanbase. Cregger has faced relentless criticism from Resident Evil fans since the project was announced, and those fans are fiercely protective of the series’ canon, so they've made their displeasure known at every turn. The film follows a brand new character named Bryan, an ordinary person swept into the Raccoon City outbreak while making a medical delivery of organs for transplant, and it exists on the periphery of the main game events. Only a few easter eggs tie it to the broader universe. But that's hardly enough. It can't satisfy a crowd that can't stomach any deviation.

Why Fans Are Furious

They wanted Leon Kennedy or Claire Redfield. Instead, longtime franchise followers got an everyman scrambling through chaos while the real action unfolded off to the side, a choice that has infuriated a community starved for decades of a faithful adaptation. Cregger previously told IGN he was “naive” to think fans would be “thrilled” that a buzzy horror director wanted to turn their beloved series into a proper survival horror movie. But that’s a hard pill to swallow. So the anger isn’t just about casting; it’s about a promise deferred, a trust broken, and a legacy seemingly sidelined for a vision that doesn’t match what they’ve imagined for years.

The backlash has touched everything. Design choices, casting decisions, and the apparent lack of iconic Resident Evil monsters have all been picked apart, piece by piece, until nothing feels safe from scrutiny. So Cregger now describes his press tour as something of an “apology tour.” He's urging fans to actually watch the film before condemning it as worthless. But that's a hard sell.

“I’m making the Resident Evil movie that I wish existed.”

This isn’t the first time a Resident Evil adaptation has faced this exact criticism. The pattern is well established, and so is the outcome.

A Legacy of Adaptation Struggles

Hollywood has spent over two decades trying to crack Resident Evil, and it's failed spectacularly each time. The Milla Jovovich-led series, which began in the early 2000s, famously ignored Capcom's in-game lore, instead inventing a new protagonist named Alice and pitting her against the Umbrella Corporation across six films. A commercial juggernaut, sure. That run pulled in over $1.2 billion worldwide, but it divided fans from the start, and those divisions never healed. The last installment landed in 2016. Then the franchise went quiet. So you can't blame anyone for wondering if that silence means they've finally given up, or if they're just waiting for the right moment to try again.

Subsequent attempts haven't fared much better. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021) tried to mash the first two games into a single story, and while that sounds ambitious, critics were unimpressed and box office returns were weak, so the whole thing just fizzled out. Netflix also gave the property a shot with a TV series in 2022, but it was canceled after one season, and fans crucified that show for its focus on family drama rather than the monsters they actually wanted to see. It tanked. And that's that.

The Warning Signs Were There

Cregger’s situation mirrors every previous attempt:

• New protagonist instead of established game characters
• Loose adherence to canon that prioritizes a fresh story
• Fan backlash before the project even releases
• A director defending creative choices against angry communities

The one difference this time is Cregger’s blunt honesty about his own limits. He isn't pretending this is the start of a long relationship with the franchise, and he's not spinning some grand narrative about future installments or shared universes that he knows he won't deliver on. It's a one-off. So he treats it as a singular vision that happens to wear the Resident Evil name, nothing more and nothing less. But that honesty cuts through the usual Hollywood hype.

Whether that vision lands with audiences remains to be seen. But Cregger’s track record suggests he knows how to craft tension and dread, the kind of slow-burning unease that settles into your bones before it ever lets you scream. Barbarian proved he understands horror on a visceral level. Weapons earned him an Oscar. So those credentials, hard-won and undeniable, are exactly why Capcom trusted him with their IP in the first place.

Still, the Resident Evil movie fanbase has been burned before. They watched Alice fight Nemesis in a film that barely resembled the games, and they watched Raccoon City get condensed into a rushed, muddled reboot that satisfied no one. Then came the Netflix series, which turned the apocalypse into a family melodrama, and somehow that felt even worse. So they keep showing up. Each time they hope for the best, and each time they leave disappointed, yet they can't seem to stop themselves from buying that ticket or pressing play. It's a cruel cycle. But they're still here.

Cregger believes his take is different. He’s a fan, he says, and he’s making the movie he always wanted to see. That might be enough for casual viewers. For the hardcore faithful, it probably won’t be. The September 18 release date will settle the argument one way or another, but one thing is already clear: this is his first Resident Evil movie, and it will be his last.