The first official trailer for Zach Cregger’s upcoming Resident Evil film adaptation has been revealed, teasing more about its direction and tone, and how it’s been inspired by the video game franchise.
As previously announced, this upcoming Resident Evil film is an entirely new take on Capcom’s iconic series, with Cregger reportedly given freedom to tell an entirely original tale inspired by the overarching lore rather than any specific game.
Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil film – quick links
The plot of Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil film adaptation
As revealed in the new trailer, Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil follows a medical courier named Bryan, played by Austin Abrams (Weapons), who encounters an array of horrors as he attempts to courier a mysterious package through a town that’s devolving into chaos.
The trailer is just vague and horrifying enough to only hint at the horrors to come, like all good trailers should. It opens on Abrams’ Bryan mid-flight, trying to get in contact with a loved one to warn of impending obstacles to their reunion.
‘I’m in, like, a seriously fucked-up situation right now,’ Bryan says.
What follows is a montage of gut-churning strangeness, as Bryan encounters inert bodies, a large, fleshy man hiding in a sewer, and a hospital-gown-wearing creature with many limbs. There’s also a particularly gross sequence featuring bodies falling from the sky and exploding against cars – weirdly, a sequence not unlike one seen in The Matrix Resurrections.
It appears, from this trailer, that Bryan will have a long journey ahead of him.
How much is Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil film inspired by the video games?
Given this trailer and Cregger’s recent comments, it does appear this Resident Evil adaptation will be directly inspired by Capcom’s video games, and possibly take place in the same universe.
Like its video game counterparts, the film appears to focus on biological disaster, as protagonist Bryan will seemingly be transporting or otherwise exposed to the work of the sinister Umbrella Corporation in his journey.
That said, it doesn’t appear any specific video game has inspired this plot, as Bryan is a new character who doesn’t neatly fit the profile of any other protagonist of the games. Those looking to watch the film without having played the games will likely be able to go in fresh.
It’s also worth noting this new film isn’t tied to other Resident Evil film adaptions – not the blockbuster Milla Jovovich franchise, nor the Welcome to Racoon City reboot, which more closely adapted the games.
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What else do we know about Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil?
Beyond these details, we’ve only had teasers about what’s to come for Zach Cregger’s interpretation of Resident Evil. In late 2025, the director claimed it would be a ‘very Zach’ film, tying closely to the director’s style, seen in films like Weapons and Barbarian.
He also claimed he ‘respected’ the games enough to leave them alone and tell his own original story.
‘I’m not gonna steal Leon and put him in an original story. I think that would be presumptuous,’ he told Entertainment Weekly. ‘But I respect the games enough where I’m gonna, like, tell a story in the canon that still leaves everything they love intact from the games, you know what I mean?’
We’ll likely see much more of this vision in the coming months.
