{"id":885888,"date":"2026-09-06T20:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T20:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/885888\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T20:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T20:00:15","slug":"resident-evil-director-zach-cregger-feels-like-hes-been-on-an-apology-tour-but-the-movie-will-speak-for-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/885888\/","title":{"rendered":"Resident Evil Director Zach Cregger Feels Like He’s Been On An ‘Apology Tour,’ But The Movie Will ‘Speak For Itself’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever since it was announced, Zach Cregger\u2019s adaptation of Resident Evil<\/a> has been under a microscope. In an era flooded with video games being turned into movies, fans have become exceedingly precious about how their beloved source material is utilized in the process. While the horror director has more than proven his creative instincts with both Barbarians and Weapons, he feels like the press tour has required him to constantly reassure fans that he gets video games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve been on somewhat of an apology tour,\u201d he told The Playlist<\/a> this week (via IGN<\/a>). \u201cI feel like I\u2019m running for office, trying to get these people not to call me a LARPer.\u201d<\/p>\n

This largely has to do with the fact that the existing Resident Evil movies had basically nothing to do with the franchise\u2019s main characters and lore, and fans have been waiting to see Capcom icons like Leon get big-screen\u00a0adaptations. Cregger\u2019s take on the survival horror series being another one-off that\u2019s divorced from the specifics of the video game storylines didn\u2019t go over well with some of those players.<\/p>\n

He continued<\/p>\n

I think I was naive. 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. I was like, \u2018That\u2019s great.\u2019 I did not really appreciate the sentiment that, \u2018We\u2019ve been waiting forever for Leon\u2019s story.\u2019 And I appreciate that, and I\u2019m sorry that\u2019s not the story I\u2019m bringing. I get it, I understand the frustration. I understand it so well because I haven\u2019t seen the earlier [Resident Evil] movies, because they don\u2019t look like the Resident Evil that I love, so how could I be frustrated with fans who have that same attitude?<\/p>\n

You can get a sense of this sentiment in an interview Cregger did with IGN at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, where he was asked to do some silly quizzes about what he\u2019d sell to Resident Evil 4\u2018s merchant. The director is fully prepared to give answers that prove his franchise bona fides, but things didn\u2019t go as planned. The awkward vibe shift blew up on X<\/a>, and while completely innocuous, it hit home the clash of worlds Cregger is hinting at. And he\u2019s clearly exhausted with it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, I\u2019m just like, \u2018You know what? See the movie,\u2019\u201d he told The Playlist. \u201cIf you still feel the same way after you\u2019ve seen it, then whatever you think is fair. You\u2019re going to decide if I\u2019m an actual Resident Evil fan or a fake. What can I say? I think the movie is going to speak for itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t sound like Cregger is planning on doing any sequels either, or any other franchise adaptations, for that matter. The Dune-like pain box that is trying to please existing fans isn\u2019t him, no matter how much it might pay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been very clear that I\u2019m not doing that,\u201d he told Deadline<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m doing this, and that\u2019s it for me. So I\u2019m not going to go tackle any other franchises \u2014 just because I\u2019m a writer, and I want to write whatever I want to write. I don\u2019t want to write something where I have to make sure I\u2019m tagging different data points to satisfy X. I just want to satisfy me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cAnd the only reason that I think Resident Evil\u00a0is OK for me to do is because I\u2019m enthusiastic about the games and I like the story that I thought of with the games and I\u2019m making it for me. I think this movie is cool, and I hope it checks the fan boxes because I\u2019m a fan and I\u2019m checking my boxes. I\u2019m making the\u00a0Resident Evil movie that I wish existed, so I can do that with a clean heart and a clear conscience and not feel like I\u2019m getting f*cked by some weird industry thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ever since it was announced, Zach Cregger\u2019s adaptation of Resident Evil has been under a microscope. In an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":885889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,14830,38309,14159],"class_list":["post-885888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-movie","tag-resident-evil","tag-zach-cregger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}