Zach Cregger has admitted he was "naive" to think fans would be okay with his upcoming Resident Evil movie straying from the source material by not directly adapting any one game and leaving out characters like Leon, but says this is simply the story he wants to tell.
"I thought fans of these games, like me, would be thrilled that somebody was coming along and turning Resident Evil into a survival horror movie," said Cregger to IGN. "I did not really appreciate the sentiment that, ‘We’ve been waiting forever for Leon’s story.’ And I appreciate that, and I’m sorry that’s not the story I’m bringing. I get it, I understand the frustration."
Rather than basing the movie around US special agent Leon Kennedy, who leads three (and a third) of the franchise's main games, Cregger introduces a new character, a medical courier named Bryan. Taking place alongside Resident Evil 2, the movie follows Bryan (Austin Abrams) as he clocks in to deliver a package to Raccoon City General Hospital, but soon gets caught up in a terrifying fight for survival in the midst of the zombie apocalypse.
The first trailer proved there are direct links to the games, but fans still lashed out over the absence of Leon, Ada, and Jill. However, Cregger understands, as he feels the same towards the earlier Resident Evil movies, "because they don't look like the Resident Evil that I love." The director added that the reason he didn't include Leon and co. was that "They exist so perfectly in the games that anyone I cast and any difference that I do with them would be, probably, to the detriment of what I was trying to do."
Cregger added, "My only hope is that they’ll see the movie regardless of their skepticism or their disappointment that I’m not telling some of the stories that the games tell so well, and they will feel seen when they do watch the movie, and they will recognize all of the love for the games that are in this movie, because it is there. This is not me just telling a story and slapping Resident Evil on it so I can get a budget. This is me telling a Resident Evil story."
When we caught up with the director in Prague during our Resident Evil set visit, Cregger said, "I don't think that me telling a story that's not about Leon is a violation of the Resident Evil world, because the games do that all the time. Leon's not in 7 or 8... I'm just going to tell another story that feels like playing in the world of the game." But it sounds like we are in safe hands, as production designer Tom Hammock revealed that Cregger is "obsessed" with the game franchise.
Resident Evil arrives in theaters on September 18. For more, check out our guide to the best Resident Evil games, and keep up with other upcoming video game movies on the way.
