‘Resident Evil’ Tease: Zach Cregger Gives His Devilish Spin on the Video Game Franchise

After starting his directing career by delivering back-to-back original genre hits in “Barbarian” and “Weapons,” Zach Cregger is Hollywood’s hottest genre filmmaker. And this fall, audiences will see him play in his biggest sandbox yet when Sony releases his new take on the “Resident Evil” franchise. The project, which has long been described as a feature-length chase scene through Hell that shares more DNA with “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “Evil Dead II” than the previous entries in the video game franchise, landed at Sony after an intense bidding war and is seen as one of 2026’s potential breakout hits. So it came as no surprise that Sony debuted the first footage from the film during its Monday afternoon presentation at CinemaCon.

The teaser trailer shown to the crowd did not disappoint. The trailer didn’t have any exposition or Umbrella Corps backstory, just star Austin Abrams going through Hell, witnessing some bloody and monstrous stuff. The whole trailer is seen with the backdrop of him entering a home and calling his girlfriend, telling her in an answering machine message, “I’m really sorry that we got disconnected earlier, but some things have happened. I’m in a seriously fucked up situation right now and it looks like there’s a chance we might not get to talk to each other again.”

Cregger took the CinemaCon stage to say that he has “played a shitload of ‘Resident Evil'” and wanted to capture the atmosphere, pacing, and even the resource management of the games. He also added that unlike “Weapons,” it has no time jumps or alternate character perspectives, just one single protagonist going from Point A to Point B “in a world that is hellbent on destroying them.”

“Resident Evil” stars Austin Abrams, Paul Walter Hauser, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, and Johnno Wilson. Cregger directs from a script he co-wrote with Shay Hatten.

After “Resident Evil,” Cregger will continue to work through a very busy slate of upcoming films. He’s developing a “Weapons” prequel that would see Amy Madigan return as Aunt Gladys, and recently enlisted Zach Shields as a co-writer; an original sci-fi movie called “The Flood” that was previously set up at Netflix; and an original DC movie titled “Henchman” that he wrote on spec and was reportedly pitching to Warner Bros. And that’s all without considering that “Resident Evil” could be the kind of hit that prompts a studio to fast-track a sequel.

Sony will release “Resident Evil” in theaters on Friday, September 18.