In just three short months, the upcoming Resident Evil reboot promises to truly cement one of the most exciting new horror filmmakers as the genre’s bona fide king. Based on Capcom’s Resident Evil video game series, which kicked off in 1996, the upcoming eponymous movie will mark the second major live-action reboot and will be set in the fictional Raccoon City of 1998’s Resident Evil 2, the sequel to the original game.
The original Resident Evil film series spanned six movies released between 2002 and 2017, but it never quite matched the success of its video game predecessor. Additionally, a 2021 reboot, Johannes Roberts’ Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, became a critical and commercial failure, but there are high hopes for the upcoming 2026 movie. Hopes are especially high given the filmmaker behind this reboot, as Zach Cregger is quickly becoming the King of Horror.
Zach Cregger Has Dominated the Horror Genre Since 2022
After the sequel to Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City fell through and a Netflix series never came to fruition, Zach Cregger was confirmed to be directing and co-writing a new Resident Evil reboot in January 2025. This was a huge steal for the Resident Evil franchise, as Cregger has very quickly established himself as one of the most stylistically unique filmmakers working in the horror genre today, and he’s on a bit of a hot streak.
After several small acting roles, particularly as a part of the comedy troupe, the Whitest Kids U’ Know, Zach Cregger made the jump to writing and directing with the comedy dramas, 2009’s Miss March and 2011’s The Civil War on Drugs. In 2022, however, Cregger shocked everyone by diving headfirst into horror, writing and directing Barbarian, which stars Georgina Campbell as a woman who discovers a dark secret hidden in her mysterious Airbnb rental.
Barbarian received critical acclaim and became a box office hit, earning $45 million worldwide on a budget of one-tenth that. This set Cregger up in good standing when he set to work on Weapons. Released in August 2025, Weapons stars the likes of Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Austin Abrams, Amy Madigan, Benedict Wong, and more in a story revolving around witchcraft and dark magic. Weapons’ universal acclaim and Oscar win solidified Cregger as one of the best in his field.
What Zach Cregger does so well in the horror genre is something that he must have picked up from his comedy career. He is an expert at subverting audience expectations and delivering perfectly timed scares and thrills. His scripts deliberately deconstruct traditional genre conventions, so twists can’t be predicted, and his unique visual style and strong focus on character make his movies even more enjoyable, so he has earned the crown as the modern horror master.
Resident Evil Will Benefit From Having Zach Cregger In the Director’s Chair
Following the immense success of Barbarian and Weapons, Zach Cregger’s next movie will be the Resident Evil reboot. Cregger’s Resident Evil, set in the modern day, will star Austin Abrams (Weapons, The Walking Dead) as Bryan, a medical courier who must learn how to survive after the viral outbreak sends Raccoon City into crisis. Zach Cherry, Paul Walter Hauser, Kali Reis, and more will back Abrams up, contributing to one of the most exciting Resident Evil movies ever.
The first teaser for the upcoming reboot has revealed that there will be no shortage of scares and thrills, allowing Cregger to do what he’s best at — balancing all-out action with grounded character development. Despite its historically poor performance on the big screen, Resident Evil is one of the biggest horror IPs in the world, so Zach Cregger’s success with his movie will skyrocket him and the franchise to new heights.
Horror has gone from strength to strength in recent months, with the likes of Obsession, Backrooms, Iron Lung, Widow’s Bay on Apple TV, and more cementing horror as one of 2026’s most popular genres. Now is the perfect time for Resident Evil to reboot, and Zach Cregger is the perfect director to lead the project, focusing on a single protagonist fighting to survive to re-establish the franchise’s core themes of dread and claustrophobia, which made the original games so popular.
What the Future Holds for Zach Cregger After Resident Evil
Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil reboot could be just the first in a new film series. The movie is expected to reach a level of success no previous installment of the franchise has, so it’s very possible that Cregger could return to lead sequels far into the franchise’s future. He may expand the Resident Evil franchise just as he is for Weapons, as he is working on a prequel focusing on the enigmatic Aunt Gladys (Madigan), which is expected to release in September 2028.
While Cregger is not intended to direct Gladys, he is co-writing the prequel with Zach Shields (Krampus, Godzilla: King of the Monsters). He will next be directing a co-production between Warner Bros. Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, however, which was announced at CinemaCon 2026. This sci-fi thriller, titled The Flood and expected to release in August 2028, will mark Cregger’s next directed feature following Resident Evil.
Cregger has also been making waves in the horror genre as a producer, having worked on Drew Hancock’s Companion in 2025, which starred Jack Quaid and Sophie Thatcher. He’ll next appear as a producer on Netflix’s Torso, an adaptation of Image Comics’ graphic novel following Elliot Ness. After Resident Evil, there’s no limit to where Zach Cregger’s talents could reach, but there’s no doubt that he will continue to make his mark on the horror genre for years to come.
- Release Date
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September 18, 2026
- Director
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Zach Cregger
- Writers
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Shay Hatten, Zach Cregger