Sony has released a full trailer for Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil, offering a new look at the filmmaker’s reboot of Capcom’s iconic franchise. You can watch the trailer in the embed above.
Rather than adapting one of the games directly, Cregger’s Resident Evil tells an original story set within the franchise’s universe. The filmmaker has previously said the movie is “obedient to the lore” of the games without centering on the characters fans already know, explaining that those stories have already been told in game form.
The film stars Austin Abrams as Bryan, a medical courier who unknowingly finds himself caught in the middle of a horrifying biohazard outbreak. According to the official synopsis, Resident Evil follows Bryan as “one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos,” sending him on an action-packed race for survival.
An earlier leaked logline provided additional story details, revealing that Bryan is sent on a late-night delivery to Raccoon City General Hospital. While driving through a snowy mountain road, he accidentally hits a mysterious woman who survives the collision… but something is terribly wrong. As Bryan attempts to help her, he stumbles into an outbreak involving horrifying mutations and bio-engineered monstrosities.
Abrams is joined in the cast by Paul Walter Hauser, Zach Cherry, Johnno Wilson, and Kali Reis. Cherry is reported to play a hospital scientist, while Reis portrays an ex-military character that was originally written as a man.
Speaking previously about his vision for the project, Cregger (writer/director of Barbarian and Weapons) emphasized that the film is his own take on the franchise.
“It’s really a Zach Cregger movie that just happens to be a Resident Evil movie.”
He also explained why Bryan is such an unconventional horror protagonist:
“The concept here is that we’re following an idiot. Not that he’s stupid, but he’s not your typical game character, with no combat skills whatsoever and completely inept at survival. Bryan is very much an everyman who happens to be burdened with this kind of sacred mission that’s going to take him into the heart of everything. It’s kind of like Frodo going into Mordor.”
Cregger has also described the movie as an almost nonstop descent into chaos.
“It feels like one gigantic sequence. Things pop off about five minutes in and it basically stays like that until the end. What I love about the games is that you move from set-piece to set-piece. Every location has a unique challenge. So again, I’m borrowing from the games directly in that rhythm, where you’re just running through a gauntlet.”
The screenplay was written by Cregger and Shay Hatten (Army of the Dead). Constantin Film is producing and co-financing alongside Vertigo Entertainment and PlayStation Productions, with Robert Kulzer, Roy Lee, Miri Yoon, Carter Swan, Asad Qizilbash, and Cregger producing.
Resident Evil reaches theaters on September 18, 2026. What did you think of the trailer? Let us know in the comments below.
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