Resident Evilhasn’t had the best luck when it comes to live-action adaptations for the silver screen. Sure, the series of movies starring Milla Jovovich may have been popular enough to warrant half a dozen sequels, but they were so detatched from the source material that you could barely call them Resident Evil movies, with one or two references here and there scattered throughout them all.
Following that up was another pretty cruddy movie in Welcome to Raccoon City, shortly followed by the Resident Evil Netflix series,which was so bad it was canned after just a single season. Witha new Resident Evil movie now in the works- helmed by director Zach Cregger - expectations are understandably low, and with his recent comments stating thathe’s not going to follow the lore of the games too closely, fans have been bracing for another disaster.
Resident Evil Director Admits He’s Never Seen Any Of The Movies
However,in a new interview with Comic Book, Cregger has offered up a small shred of hope for those wanting a movie that is, at the very least, faithful to the games. In the interview, Cregger admits that he “[hasn’t] seen the movies” because they’re “not my thing”, and instead talks about how much he’s enjoyed playing the games over the years.
“I love the games,” says Cregger. “I played all of the games. I played Resident Evil 4 a hundred times through. I’m obsessed with it. And so, I just want to tell a story that feels like it’s honoring the experience you get when you play the games.”
He goes on to say that he feels the games are “a playground I just love”, and that the movie he’s making “is going to rip”. Cregger may play fast and loose with the lore of the series, but it does at least sound like the movie he’s making will be a love letter to the games that came before it. As we’ve seen with shows likeFalloutand Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, both of which told new stories in an established universe, that’s all you really need sometimes.
Given Cregger’s love for horror and Resident Evil 4, I can see a world in which his movie attempts to match the goofy B-movie vibes of Leon Kennedy’s escapades, though he could also be inspired by the more serious tone of horror that Resident Evil 9 looks to be going for. Either way, Cregger loves the games, and at this point, I’m happy to take that.
