Zach Cregger says he’d love to tell more stories in the Resident Evil universe, admitting he already has “ideas” about where he’d take things in a second film.
Cregger’s Resident Evil movie releases on September 18, 2026. It’s a decidedly different take on Capcom’s flagship horror franchise that tells a totally original tale, following an average Joe who’s forced to navigate the chaos of the Raccoon City Incident.
This decision has, unsurprisingly, split the series’ fanbase — but Cregger has maintained that he’s a huge fan of the games and didn’t just “slap” Resident Evil onto the movie to “get a budget.” In fact, he’s already got an idea of where he’d take a second film if everything goes well.
When asked if he’d like to remain in the Resident Evil universe during an interview with The Playlist, Cregger answered: “I can’t help thinking about other places this story could go. I’ve got ideas, but this movie hasn’t even come out yet. Let’s see what happens.
“With Barbarian, I’ve never entertained the idea of a sequel or another movie in that universe because that story is, at its heart, so foul,” he continued. “What makes Barbarian interesting is the unfolding of the narrative, not the subject matter. I don’t think I want to write another story about what that movie is about. But this is different. I want to talk about the ending of this movie so badly, because there is a big aspect of it that’s worth discussing. This is a different situation.”
Thankfully, Resident Evil is already shaping up to have the most successful movie launch in the franchise’s history; early predictions suggest the horror flick could earn $40M – $50M during its opening weekend, potentially outearning any other movie adaptation of the game series.
Excitement (and trepidation) for Cregger’s version of events is at an all-time high, and regular teasers have been rolling out showing more and more of what we can expect when September 18 arrives. Most recently, a Spanish-language trailer from Sony España showed a glimpse of a creature that looks an awful lot like it’s been overtaken by Las Plagas, the parasite Leon fights in Resident Evil 4.
A promotional poster was also shared on the movie’s official social media accounts that showed an X-ray of a Doberman Pinscher, suggesting that the T-Virus infected dogs will make a possible appearance in the movie as a lovely callback to the earlier games.
For now, we’ll just have to wait and see if Resident Evil lives up to the hype — or lack thereof, with Cregger telling us that he was “naive” to expect all fans of the games would be happy with his decision to avoid a direct adaptation of “stories the games tell so well.”
Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.
