The next Resident Evil movie already sounds like an improvement on the Milla Jovovich era and could deliver the adaptation fans of the property have always desired. The Resident Evil movies may not have been critical hits, but they are, to date, the most successful series based on a video game. On their own merits, they’re fun but intensely junky action flicks that are powered by Milla Jovovich’s star turn. There has always been a dividing schism between devotees of the games and films, since the Jovovich years largely ignored Capcom’s games in favor of original storylines.

Jovovich’s Alice never appeared in the Resident Evil games either. Jovovich’s six-movie run grossed a collective $1.2 billion, but subsequent reboot attempts didn’t pan out. Netflix’s dire TV series was canned after one season, while film reboot Welcome to Raccoon City was far more faithful but underperformed. Now Barbarian’s Zach Cregger will write and direct the upcoming Resident Evil reboot, with Austin Abrams and Anora’s Mikey Madison being linked to the leading roles.

New Resident Evil Movie Is Intentionally Different From Milla Jovovich’s Franchise

Cregger’s film will capture the “spirit” of the Resident Evil games

Speaking at CinemaCon (where Screen Rant was in attendance for Sony’s presentation), Cregger outlined plans for his take on Resident Evil. In the filmmaker’s words, Cregger’s Resident Evil will be “… unlike any of the previous films.” The filmmaker aims to capture the tone and atmosphere of the earlier games, where players are low on health and ammo but must push themselves to keep moving forward.

There’s a moment that comes in every moment of every Resident Evil game where you find yourself standing in the mouth of a dark pᴀssageway. One sH๏τ in the gun is left. You know that something horrible is waiting for you in that darkness, that awful moment where you have to will yourself. That’s something that every Resident Evil game has perfected and has kept me and millions of other players returning to the series for decades.

If Cregger wants to get fans of the series on board, he’s saying all the right things. While the Milla Jovovich films had their moments of tension, they never made a concerted effort to be especially scary either, so Cregger’s vision already sounds like a step in the right direction.

The director is тιԍнт-lipped about the reboot’s plot or if any familiar characters will appear. That said, in a conversation with YouTube channel wkukVODS, Cregger stated he had never seen any of the Jovovich movies and that Resident Evil 2, 4, and 7 were his favorites of the games.

The New Resident Evil Movie’s Story Is Simpler & That’s Better

Presumably there won’t be an army of Milla Jovovich clones

There were moments in Barbarian that already suggested Cregger would be a great fit for Resident Evil, and he is a filmmaker who knows how to build suspense and deliver effective jolts. There are reports the new film will play more like a survival thriller, and Cregger himself told the CinemaCon audience that it will be “a story that follows one central protagonist from point A to point B as they descend into hell.” This suggests a straightforward, stripped-back story where the main character’s only concern is getting out in one piece.

This again harkens back to original games, which had simple stories where most of the plot was delivered via text journals. The Milla Jovovich Resident Evils were never overburdened by the story but also became increasingly convoluted as the franchise wore on, adding in clones, constant retcons, and a final reveal involving Jovovich’s Alice that made little sense. Cregger’s horror-focused, game-accurate Resident Evil sounds like just the fresh start the property could use.

Source: CinemaCon, wkukVODS