Resident Evil director Zach Cregger made a bold choice not to feature any characters from the beloved video game franchise in his film adaptation.
Zach Cregger didn’t think his Resident Evil movie needed legacy characters from the video games.
The 45-year-old horror maestro has helmed the newest big screen adaptation of the iconic franchise, which focuses on a medical courier played by Austin Abrams who gets caught in a zombie outbreak on his way to Raccoon City General Hospital.
Cregger told The Hollywood Reporter: “The idea that I had just didn’t need any of [the games’ characters] and I felt like to bring them in would be to invite a lot of problems that I felt like would have been distracting from the central story.”
The Weapons filmmaker noted he had “a clear idea of what would be my favourite Resident Evil movie”, and he feels “lucky enough to have a studio” that allowed him to make it.
He added: “I felt pretty confident. We’ll see, maybe I’m delusional but I don’t think so. I’ve seen the movie and I like it.”
However, Cregger acknowledged that he knew some fans would give him “flack” for ditching the characters from the games.
He said: “I know that when you dive into an IP you’re going to get flack, a certain degree, from the fandom. It would be weird if I were shocked that that was happening.
“But I think that when the people who love these games the way I do see the movie, my hope is that they feel seen and they feel like this movie is paying homage to the games, because it is, it’s obvious.”
Meanwhile, Sony film chief Tom Rothman has recalled the moment Cregger pitched his take on the Resident Evil franchise.
He told Deadline: “I knew his work and that he’s extremely talented. I thought his idea for what it was he wanted to do was really, really strong.
“When you can get with an exceptional director paired with some really exciting IP, that makes my job pretty easy.”
Debuting in 1996, Capcom’s Resident Evil pitted numerous Raccoon City cops against the mysterious Umbrella Corporation, an international pharmaceutical company that secretly develops mutagenic viruses.
Resident Evil has featured on the big screen since 2002 with the eponymous horror flick, which starred Milla Jovovich as the action heroine Alice.
The film received five sequels, with the last entry in the series, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, coming out in 2016.
In 2021, Resident Evil was rebooted with Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City – which starred Avan Jogia as Leon S. Kennedy and Kaya Scodelario as Claire Redfield.
Zach Cregger reveals why his Resident Evil film ‘didn’t need any’ legacy characters
