For fans of the franchise, mentioning the movies always creates a multiverse of responses, with trepidation being a frequent one. From the very start, Resident Evil movies have had a struggle, as shown in the recently released documentary of the George Romero Resident Evil movie RE fans deserved but never got. Zach Cregger, director of the recent hit Weapons is making the series which coined the term “survival horror” his next mountain, but with a methodology which has led other famous directors into trouble.
With Weapons in theaters- if you haven’t caught it yet, stop what you are doing and read our review – fans will be eager to see what Cregger will do with the beloved franchise, but details have been as rare as magnum rounds in the Spencer mansion. On August 4th, Cregger gave new details on his next project which have given fans both hope and a hint of anxiety.
Cregger has stated that his film, a “love letter to the games” will be truer to the game’s spirit than its lore. As such, it will not feature any of RE’s hapless heroes or monstrous villains. Despite some speculation that Austin Abrams, one of Weapon’s cast, could make a good Leon S. Kennedy, it seems Cregger may be following in the footsteps of Paul W. S. Anderson in some ways.
Anderson directed the first Resident Evil movies starring Mila Jovovich which ran from 2002 through 2016. Like Cregger’s film, the first movie contained only original characters in a take on Resident Evil’s setting which, arguably, stuck mostly to the games’ lore. The 2004 Resident Evil: Apocalypse contained fan-favorite Jill Valentine and her Resident Evil 3 nemesis… er, Nemesis. This began a trend in the Anderson series where characters and scenes would be plucked from the games, and surgically implanted, despite the movies taking a more Zom-Poc approach to the setting, leading to some… grotesque takes, such as other fan-favorite Leon S Kennedy appearing in only one film, 2012’s Resident Evil: Retribution. Having canonically close-enough characters pop in to either die-off or disappear became something of a trope in the films.
As such, RE fans have always wanted to see a more canon-friendly take on their beloved characters, and many hoped 2021’s Welcome to Raccoon City* would break the mold. And it did, in some ways. While the characters were adapted to fit the plot, which combined the storylines of the first two games, Welcome to Raccoon City fell on the other end of the canonicity spectrum, in that the director stuck much more closely to the first two games, but with questionable results. While some elements, such as Avan Jogia’s take on Leon Kennedy’s absolute worst first-day-on-the-job in video game history, were entertaining, the film failed to infect both new audiences and fans with enthusiasm.
While Western-made, live-action Resident Evil movies have struggled to portray RE’s protagonists well, the CGI, fully Canon Resident Evil have had better luck. The most recent not only concluded character arcs begun in the previous film for Chris Redfield - the series’ first male protagonist - and Leon, but also is the first canon entry in the franchise to have lead characters from both Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2 fighting the undead together. The CGI films, while varying in quality, provide more of the characters fans have enjoyed for years, which takes some pressure off Cregger’s upcoming film.
With such a complex chronicle of characterization, Cregger’s choice to focus on original characters could be a wise move which avoids the difficulties both Anderson’s sextet and Welcome to Raccoon City’s fell into, but also closes off another chance to bring the series’ protagonists to the screen without digital animation. But if Weapons is anything to go by, Cregger’s take on Resident Evil could be a fresh breath for fans. Just look at 1428 Elm’s interview with two Weapon actors for further proof.