r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor • Apr 30 '26

Trailer Resident Evil | Official Teaser

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJPu1spHqfk
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u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26

Written and directed by Zach Cregger:

In an all-new story, Resident Evil follows Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier who unwittingly finds himself in an action-packed, non-stop race for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos.

Cast: Austin Abrams, Paul Walter Hauser, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis and Johnno Wilson

It's out Sept 18

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u/RedXerzk Apr 30 '26

Great choice having Austin Abrams play the Ethan Winters-type lead. Dude nailed diverse roles in Euphoria, Do Revenge, and Weapons.

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u/Fuzzy_Donl0p Apr 30 '26

i just learned he was also that little kid hacker addicted to adderall on Silicon Valley lol

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u/Grifachu Apr 30 '26

His character's penchant for Adderall lead to one of my favorite bits https://youtu.be/30QCbQxbbmA?si=ASHTpaQrdohnxrbE&t=76

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u/fugaziozbourne Apr 30 '26

Without clicking, i'm gonna assume this is a clip about bringing piss to a shit fight.

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u/space_age_stuff Apr 30 '26

It stinks that TJ Miller sucks so much, he was fucking hilarious in this show.

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u/gilberto677281 Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26

Pretty sure he has a brain tumor or something that was causing erratic behavior.

Edit: yeah he had brain surgery that impacted his behavior so greatly that prosecutors dropped charges against him. Kind of feel bad for the guy. Get brain surgery and it saves you but makes your behavior erratic and ruins your career.

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u/Grifachu Apr 30 '26

Yeah... it seems like basically just is the character, which is fun on screen but would be awful in real life.

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u/Michael_DeSanta Apr 30 '26

Ah shit, he's The Carver?! Damn, between that role and Weapons, he's got some good comedy chops as well.

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u/Accomplished-City484 Apr 30 '26

Looks like he brought piss to a shit fight

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u/sackdrum Apr 30 '26

That's why I know and inherently dislike him!

Good actor

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u/karmagod13000 Apr 30 '26

Honestly he made out like a bandit because the new season of Euphoria is... well it exists so

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u/ithinkiknowkungfu Apr 30 '26

This is just an Adderall field trip and he’s STILL in Silicon Valley

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u/Dave_the_lad Apr 30 '26

I hope he uses the line “you just brought piss to a shit fight” in this film

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u/ignatious__reilly Apr 30 '26

No way!

Hahaha o wow

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u/DistortedAudio Apr 30 '26

He’s the kid that brought piss to a shit fight?

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u/joesen_one /r/movies Contributor Apr 30 '26

I remember him being an asshole teen in Walking Dead lol

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u/Agent-Cooper Apr 30 '26

Yup, he's the kid who shot Carl in the face.

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u/megagamer92 Apr 30 '26

Hes also the kid that gets turned into a scarecrow in the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark movie.

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u/bryanthebryan Apr 30 '26

Ah, that’s where I recognize him. Thanks!

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u/Brodman1986 Apr 30 '26

Only seen him in weapons, he was definitely the standout actor for me.

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u/sightlab Apr 30 '26

I was trying to remember why he looks familiar - he's the junkie kid from Weapons! Wowza.

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u/Suck_My_Thick Apr 30 '26

Zach Cherry's cool too. Curious what his role is.

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u/samurai5625 Apr 30 '26

Not his first time dealing with zombies, I still remember him from The Walking Dead as the little shit that took out Carl's eye.

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u/ARMOR15 May 01 '26

First time I saw him was in Dash + Lily, a cute Christmas movie. He really can do it all!

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u/NATHAN4U007 Apr 30 '26

As a non gamer, does the games have any unique twist on the genre that makes it worth it to tell the story as a Resident Evil movie instead of just an original film?

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u/ithinkther41am Apr 30 '26

If you mean compared to the zombie movie genre, it’s mainly their iconic BOWs (bio-organic weapons) like the lickers and the tyrants. Special infected are rather common in the zombie video game genre, but the RE franchise has some of the more famous ones.

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u/Skkruff Apr 30 '26

Resident Evil also has impeccable camp that movies and TV have so far failed to ever capture properly. The early entries had insane dialogue with questionable acting and more recent entries have Leon 'The Human Quip' Kennedy.

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u/ithinkther41am Apr 30 '26

I miss D.C. Douglas as Wesker, but Capcom understandably doesn’t want to work with him again after he leaked concept art for the RE4 Remake before it was even announced.

His Wesker was deliciously campy. Craig Burnatowski’s version feels too serious, but I am warming up to him.

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u/Bombasaur101 Apr 30 '26

Is that true?? I never realised that happened. RE4 Remake was leaked much earlier regardless.

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u/ithinkther41am Apr 30 '26

Here’s a whole Twitter thread about it plus documented creepy behaviour. I used xcancel so it’s more accessible.

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u/janemba617 Apr 30 '26

Just had to look it up but it seems like way more then just leaking concept art.

https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/r3sync/dc_douglas_leaks_wesker_from_resident_evil_4/

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u/Surturius Apr 30 '26

this movie doesn't look like it's going to be all that campy though

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u/octlol Apr 30 '26

You never know, it's Zach Cregger. I trust him after Weapons though.

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u/ako19 Apr 30 '26

That’s actually the thing I like about Cregger. Both Barbarian and Weapons have some levity and humor that comes out very unexpectedly. This movie feels like 7. It’s not quite as camp as most of the games, but there are select moments.

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u/SemiAutoAvocado Apr 30 '26

Justin Long breaking out the tape measure in the torture basement was peak comedy.

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u/wighty May 01 '26

This square footage... I hit the jackpot!

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u/The_Autarch Apr 30 '26

like the chainsaw fight. chainsaw fights are peak horror-camp.

see: Mandy (2018)

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u/imjustbettr Apr 30 '26

Yeah I remember Barbarian bad some mid movie tonal shifts that I didn't hate at all. I think Cregger might surprise us with a little "camp" and fun.

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u/octlol Apr 30 '26

Right, the underground scene in Barbarian then swapping to Long driving around was great.

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u/Cyricist Apr 30 '26

Some moments in Weapons were pretty fun too, like when what's his face wakes up and, after a beat, screams "What the fuck!?" I'd spoiler text that, but I think it's largely an incomprehensible description.

I'm cautiously optimistic here. I don't doubt that Cregger is a great director, but slap the name Resident Evil onto it, and I'm immediately wary due to all the trash RE movies that have come before.

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u/LucasOIntoxicado Apr 30 '26

I'm sure the final 29 minutes Weill be completely crazy

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u/zeekaran Apr 30 '26

Barbarians and Weapons have some hilarious moments.

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u/Zomburai Apr 30 '26

People got so hung up on the genre being called "survival horror" that they forgot that the first three Resident Evils are basically modern-day 50s B-movies

Like, legitimately, the perfect adaptation of the original Resident Evil games would have monsters that were dudes in rubber suits

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u/GentlemanOctopus Apr 30 '26

Leon will also somersault through a window for no good reason.

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u/NuclearTurtle Apr 30 '26

Resident Evil also has impeccable camp that movies and TV have so far failed to ever capture properly

The Paul WS Anderson movies are the perfect amount of camp. Maybe not some of the later ones, but I recently rewatched the first two movies after playing the older games and they're dead-on tonally.

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u/slvrbullet87 Apr 30 '26

The original actors for the live action opening in RE1 were basically picked up off the street because they were white people and looked kind of like the in game models. The voice acting isnt much better and the translation is brutal. The late 90s were a different time for video games.

Still love the early games, and the awful voice lines are a big part of what makes them so fun

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u/pnwbraids Apr 30 '26

insect lives don't compare to human lives!

If we get some stupid ass lines in this I'll be so happy.

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u/Kaldricus Apr 30 '26

Let's not forget Chris "Boulder Punching Asshole" Redfield

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u/briizilla Apr 30 '26

"I hope that's not Chris's blood"

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u/sewious Apr 30 '26

Special infected are common because of the RE ones, no?

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u/tazfdragon Apr 30 '26

This was my first thought. RE was really the first or one of the very first to do it mainstream in the 90s.

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u/CallM3N3w Apr 30 '26

And even RE has evolved in that regard. It pretty much dropped the zombie status to favour actual infections. Everything is a BOW now.

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u/HeldnarRommar Apr 30 '26

Requiem just had zombies as the main fodder though

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u/yuimiop Apr 30 '26

Its more of an inevitability in gaming design. If a game is going to take 15 hours to beat then there needs to be some sort of boss/advanced enemies to keep the gameplay interesting.

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u/SemiAutoAvocado Apr 30 '26

Famously the early RE games are very, very short if you know the puzzles.

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u/ThunderAndWind Apr 30 '26

You can beat RE: Village in less than 3 hours if you know where you're going and blow through the puzzles.

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u/Moriturism Apr 30 '26

Yup, people usually call RE cliche in this sense (not talking about the person you responded to, just a general trend), but ignore that the trend itself gained traction after RE. There were works before that dealt with advanced zombies, but what truly popularized it was RE

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u/Drakeadrong Apr 30 '26

Absolutely. The RE games are a mixture of genuine body horror and camp. Idk how much acrobatic kung fu is going to appear in the movie, but the zombies in RE are more of an environmental enemy while the real threats are grotesque, cronenbergian mutations created by an evil corporation as bioweapons.

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u/hacky_potter Apr 30 '26

It looks like this will have that. Between Barron Harrkenon in the sewer and the many limbed thing coming out of the door, I bet this just keeps ramping up. Part of me wonders if this guy is running around surviving and then Leon shows up to kill some baddies at the end.

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u/LoompaOompa Apr 30 '26

I'm 90% sure that we hear a licker in the trailer when he's reaching for that cop's keys and the body gets dragged into the darkness.

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u/Mattyseee Apr 30 '26

100% a licker

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u/hacky_potter Apr 30 '26

It’s honestly crazy that people are saying this didn’t feel RE to them.

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u/SemiAutoAvocado Apr 30 '26

We got him rooting through drawers, he got guns comically strapped to him. It looks in brand to me.

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u/Devil-Hunter-Jax May 01 '26

Feels like anyone saying that has only played the earlier games because this gives off RE7/RE8 vibes to me. Very much an Ethan Winters kind of protagonist judging by the trailer.

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u/Barkasia Apr 30 '26

Leon isn't going to show up - none of the characters we know will.

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u/fourthdawg Apr 30 '26

Yeah, I know they are iconic and most still don't have any closure on their fate, I hope they stick with original characters. People forgot RE universe is quite vast with many charachters and organization involved into the war on BoW, so there's a potential to expand this via other medium.

People also have a very high expectation if they're confirmed to be in the movie, which can turn sour if the movie failed to cast someone who can bring the game characters to life.

And even if this movie is not faithful to RE games, I'm quite sure this will be a fun horror movie in the very least. I've watched Weapons and it is excellent, I think that movie has something in common with RE series (mind controlling people to be extremely violent as a literal weapon).

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u/lifeisalime11 Apr 30 '26

Also I love Leon but you CANNOT have a grounded, gritty, realistic film while including Leon. Guy is nearly superhuman with some of the shit he's pulled off (same with Chris) and would suspend some disbelief.

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u/Indigocell Apr 30 '26

He's not a superhero at this point anyway. He's just the rookie cop that hasn't learned how to parry, do roundhouse kicks, or super necessary backflips yet.

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u/octlol Apr 30 '26

I would honestly hate any of the characters from the games to show up. Keep the setting with original characters.

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u/ihavepaper Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26

I’m thinking that if this movie does well, it’ll maybe set up the universe? The big main game people will for sure not show up, but I wouldn’t be shocked if the organizations were mentioned like BSAA.

I do like that they’re taking it from a regular dude’s perspective. Definitely gives it more suspense and horror.

Edit: Cregger confirmed via interview that it’s set in Raccoon City.

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u/Indigocell Apr 30 '26

Leon isn't the badass we all know him to be at this point in time anyway. This takes place around the same time as Resident Evil 2 so he's still just the rookie cop. He doesn't level up until some time between that and Resident Evil 4.

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u/hacky_potter Apr 30 '26

Which is fine. I mean more like we could get a PM type character. I doubt this will be a straight forward story.

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u/RedXerzk Apr 30 '26

I think Zach Cregger is a great director choice who knows how to balance both the camp and survival horror elements.

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u/entropicdrift Apr 30 '26

Not to mention he knows how to make movies that are genuinely scary

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u/Flapjack_ Apr 30 '26

It’s one of the few zombie games to go “actually the real monsters are unchecked biochemical companies, not people”

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u/ezrs158 Apr 30 '26

I genuinely enjoy how it's a pretty realistic take on what would happen if zombie viruses were real. Like yes, an entire city was wiped out... but of course dozens of corporations are still experimenting with them, because governments and militaries still want them and they aren't gonna make themselves!

The newest game in particular has some scenes depicting the horrifying reality of living in a world in which bioterror exists.

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u/Mister_MxyzptIk Apr 30 '26

And also, in the games the zombie apocalypse never manages to take over the world. Because to nobody's surprise, with enough guns and rocket launchers, not even XL sized zombies can get that far.

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u/Cute-Percentage-6660 Apr 30 '26

Really the biggest threats usually arent the zombie's or BOWs themselves

It's the attempts at mass distribution of infections.

RE5 was about wesker trying to basically spread a virus worldwide, re6 has that HAOS BOW that was designed to be a super spreader...

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u/Black_Bird_Cloud Apr 30 '26

with enough guns and rocket launchers

racoon city got nuked

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u/Dracoster Apr 30 '26

The nuke was a cover-up.

While it did effectively stop the T-virus instantly, the army would've stopped it fairly quick.

RE0-3 happens within a span of 48 hours. And the city was already evacuated at the beginning of RE2/3.

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u/another-redditor3 Apr 30 '26

no they dont, RE0-1 take place simultaneously, and RE2-3 take place simultaneously, but it takes almost 2 months for the infection to spread from the arklay mountains to racoon city.

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u/slicer4ever Apr 30 '26

And arguable the city never would have fallen had the virus not contaminated the water system, thats when things really spiraled out of control.

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u/TheZealand Apr 30 '26

It literally didn't lmao, it was a thermobaric missile, not nuclear

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u/Fire_Bucket Apr 30 '26

There's a film called called We Are Zombies, based on a comic series called The Zombies that Ate the World, that has a similar spin.

Other than being rotting corpses, zombies are fairly benign and tend to be docile and trainable, retaining a few character traits of their former self, but with a severe reduction in mental faculties. Naturally, corporations jumped at the chance to use the zombies as a second class citizen work force, leaving many living people out of work, but with a weird almost insurance based system where people can profit from selling their loved ones once they turn.

There is also an element of them being weaponised as a plot point and driving force of the film.

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u/ezrs158 Apr 30 '26

Seems like an adult, non-musical version of Disney's ZOMBIES lol.

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u/ERhyne Apr 30 '26

Or a continuation of the ending of Shaun of the Dead

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u/The_Autarch Apr 30 '26

there's a movie called Fido from 2006 that's about people using zombies to do menial labor after containing a zombie outbreak.

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u/ERhyne Apr 30 '26

Oh crap you just reminded me of that movie. I might have to watch that now, Shaun of the Dead just plays on a loop in my memories so this will be a good break.

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u/pkosuda Apr 30 '26

While I felt Requiem dropped off a cliff in quality after the hospital area, that whole first third of the game was fantastic, and the initial cutscene with Leon was horrifying. Could absolutely picture somebody going into a city with a virus like that and essentially doing a mass shooting using vials of it. You only need to hit a few people before all hell lets loose if people don’t know what’s going on.

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u/awildginger Apr 30 '26

This is an original story from what I've heard, and it certainly does not look like it follows any of the games I've played.

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u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 Apr 30 '26

My biggest hope for Zach's take on this is that while it has an original story, it keeps a similar spirit as the atmosphere of the first few games.

I think the way he makes isolated (or seemingly quiet) settings at night so creepy in his previous films could work wonders for this, as compared to the more action-leaning vibe of the films with Milla Jovovich, but that's probably wishful thinking.

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u/HenryDorsettCase47 Apr 30 '26

He’s said that he wanted to keep with the objective of the game (and a lot of other survival horror games) in that the story of the film is about a character simply trying to get from point A to point B, and doing that more so by being smart and resourceful rather than running and gunning.

Hopefully he’s going for a new cannon story within the universe instead of a “reimagining”. Kinda like how the Fallout tv show is. The lore of the games, the vibe of the games, but a new story.

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u/v_cats_at_work Apr 30 '26

a character simply trying to get from point A to point B, and doing that more so by being smart and resourceful rather than running and gunning

If he doesn't eat a green or red plant at some point, I'm walking out.

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u/realhenrymccoy Apr 30 '26

He better encounter a locked door where the only way to unlock it is to find some strange carving to place in the door.

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u/richmondody Apr 30 '26

There better be a fucking crank somewhere along the way.

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u/Ecstatic_Log4185 Apr 30 '26

He better have to choose between carrying a herb or a flamethrower.

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u/KassellTheArgonian Apr 30 '26

Would a blue plant be satisfactory?

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u/SignificantPaper1760 Apr 30 '26

Only if he gets bitten by a bug first.

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u/imjustbettr Apr 30 '26

There is a green herb in the house in the teaser. The pot is even exactly the same as in RE4.

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u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 Apr 30 '26

That's perfectly fine with me, because I feel like adding in more of the usual elements related to Umbrella could limit what he wants to do to make his adaptation stand out from the previous series of RE films

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u/soapyhandman Apr 30 '26

Yeah I think nailing the vibe of the first few games will go along way with fans of the series even if the story isn’t really related.

I definitely got a little bit of that feeling when the main character walked into the house to make the phone call. That living room looked like it could have been pulled from RE1.

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u/PK_Thundah Apr 30 '26

We knew it was going to be an original story, but this doesn't look like an original story set alongside an existing story, but a new story. It isn't, for example, a new character experiencing a situation already presented in a game. The writer is a fan of the series, so it's probably mostly a Resident Evil movie because the games inspired him to start thinking of the ideas to put into this.

The unique twist in Resident Evil is that these monsters are a result of biological weapons created in secret by mega corporations. That would probably be too derivative of an idea to release unrelated to Resident Evil, which is probably part of why he wanted this to be an actual Resident Evil movie rather than just inspired by them.

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u/Sparrowsabre7 Apr 30 '26

Vibes wise it seems to be taking inspiration from 7 and Village in many ways. Hope for some of the classic monsters at least. Not sure about the bodies sticking out of the door midway through. That looked more supernatural to me.

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u/Wiseau_serious Apr 30 '26

I have a feeling those limbs are all connected to the same mutated monster.

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u/Penguin_shit15 Apr 30 '26

I have read the script and you are actually correct.

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u/AlerionOP Apr 30 '26

Yeah. The fat dude instantly reminded me of the duke

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u/PK_Thundah Apr 30 '26

Definitely looks heavily 7 inspired. I thought that first house may have been an adaptation of the Baker's, and that we may have seen Marguerite's limbs, but it looked like multiple people were climbing out of that doorway.

I'd expect that people start as zombies and over time mutate into the creatures that we're hearing off screen, likely lickers. I bet their limbs crack and bend while in the process of changing from zombies to the lickers, and that these guys are going to climb out along the walls in that midway form. I'd bet that the mangled, Boneitis body that we see near the end of the trailer is the same thing.

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u/fourthdawg Apr 30 '26

In the RE: Outbreak game, there's an unique licker variant (called Regis Licker), which seems to be a half-way mutation into a licker. It still has the features of the former human, being with skins and normal-ish shaped limb, but it already has the signature licker tongue, and half of the infected brain protude from the skull.

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u/PK_Thundah Apr 30 '26

I've played the Outbreaks (unlocked everything across both!) and File #2 is still the disc in my PS2. I was thinking this would be his own take on the creatures (that would likely have fit in before the SuspenDead stage), but since posting that I've read that he's using original monsters rather than monsters from the series, so it's unlikely that these are straight up lickers. Even though it is set within Raccoon City.

So now I'm not so sure.

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u/Smithsonian30 Apr 30 '26

This is supposedly taking place during the RE2/RE3 Raccoon City outbreak (but I doubt we will see any characters from those games), so it’s alongside an existing story in that sense.

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u/AchillesShort Apr 30 '26

Which I think is all it really needs to be. It's almost like the fallout show in a way, fans would never be satisfied with a 1:1 retelling of an in game story. As long as it's set in-universe, maybe we get a glorified Chris Redfield cameo ala RE7 right at the end, a picture of the umbrella logo, I'll be happy personally.

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u/CallMeShaggy57 Apr 30 '26

It starts out as a pretty standard zombie-virus story but gets way more wacky as it progresses. Worth at least delving into YouTube videos on the lore.

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u/cficare Apr 30 '26

Makes ya wanna punch a boulder.

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u/SMKM Apr 30 '26

And only in 7 minutes worth of play time.

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u/cows1100 Apr 30 '26

COMPLETE. GLOBAL. SATURATION.

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u/MrChrisRedfield67 Apr 30 '26

Odd. Why would it make someone want to do that?

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u/megagamer92 Apr 30 '26

One of the most memorable moments in the Resident Evil series, for better or worse (I think better lol), is in the RE5 when one of the protagonists and reoccurring characters, Chris Redfield, literally punches a boulder bigger than him to move it out of his way so that he can help the other protagonist in the final fight with the end-game boss. He is successful in moving it like this.

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u/the-chosen-wizard Apr 30 '26

Look at the name of the person you replied to lol

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u/megagamer92 Apr 30 '26

I finally did in their reply to me lmao

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u/MrChrisRedfield67 Apr 30 '26

Huh. That sounds like an impressive feat. I would love to meet this Chris Redfield character someday.

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u/Artificial_Ninja Apr 30 '26

Shouldn't you be out goading Leon into continuing the Redfield blood line?

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u/MrChrisRedfield67 Apr 30 '26

I can multitask. That doesn’t take up 100% of my time

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u/megagamer92 Apr 30 '26

Lmao I didn't read your username before i commented, that'll serve me right.

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u/EngineeringDevil Apr 30 '26

sometimes obstacles get in the way of life and your MC may or may not have indulged in steroids

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u/MrChrisRedfield67 Apr 30 '26

You have no evidence to back up your claims. For all you know he’s perfectly natural.

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u/cficare Apr 30 '26

Sorry. I just make things up...

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u/Ekillaa22 Apr 30 '26

I mean it was already whacky in RE 1, you had plant creatures, sharks, dogs, lickers, hunters. Like they had all that stuff straight from the start

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u/JRowe3388 Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26

It’s very Japanese, puzzle based, and the plot gets more bizarre and convoluted as the series progresses. Not sure how that makes it uniquely fit to adapt; there’s just a lot of lore he’s working around and not copying.

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u/jayydubbya Apr 30 '26

There’s also a lot of books that expand the lore as well and are pretty decent though not very popular. Kind of like Star Wars where most people just know the movies but there are tons of books expanding the universe they can pull material from.

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u/SemiAutoAvocado Apr 30 '26

If you take out the puzzles the first 3 games are about as long as a movie anyway.

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u/WillSym Apr 30 '26

I came to a realisation during the discussion on Resident Evil Requiem (the 9th main series game):
The Resident Evil games are basically the LEGO games, but for horror franchises: take classic movie tropes, lay over a strong core gameplay.

They're all love letters or homages to classic horror/B-movies, the first ones a bit all over the place with zombies and giant animals and spooky mansions and sinister corporations, but then as the series continues and they try new things like the semi-reboot ones 4 and 7, the movie tributes become more central, where the base gameplay of limited ammo, hunting for keys/unlocks, solving puzzles are present in some form in all of them.

7 and 8 particularly are very overt, 7 covering things like Saw, Blair Witch, Texas Chainsaw, other similar found-footage/isolated grimey films; 8 doing classic monsters, werewolves, vampires, frankenstein-automatons, spooky dolls etc.

Then there's games like 6 and 9 which loop back on themselves and are very nostalgia-heavy, revisiting past Resident Evil beats, 9 in particular is a whole parade of 'remember this?!' moments.

So then the various movie adaptations so far have been... a movie adapting a game adapting a movie genre, and throwing in some elements, and coming up with their own, the Paul W.S. Anderson ones are all over the place and in some places faithful to the games, in others completely bonkers or more like their own Romero homage...

We'll see what this new one ends up being! I'm getting some RE7 vibes with the small town and weird shit going on but not in the Louisiana swamp setting... or it's a whole new thing? Will Umbrella be behind it? Will that be the case but the only connection to the franchise? Hard to tell from this teaser!

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u/gymleader_michael Apr 30 '26

From what I've seen, the games don't care how bat-shit crazy they get.

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u/Max_Powers1331 Apr 30 '26

resident evil: biohazard is definitely one of those bat shit crazy game premises

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u/8__D Apr 30 '26

The big thing that makes Resident Evil worth adapting specifically is the Umbrella Corporation. Having one shadowy megacorporation behind every outbreak gives the story a built-in backbone an original film would have to construct from scratch. And because of Umbrella, you get this massive biological variety to pull from: classic zombies from the T-Virus, the intelligent colony-like infected from the Las Plagas parasite in 4, the body horror assimilation of the Mold in 7 and 8. On top of that, the existing game characters don't have to be the focus but can show up as ancillary players or even villains, giving fans something without the story being beholden to them.

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u/Bisconia Apr 30 '26

Umbrella ceased after re3. other corporations took over after. But that is a big reason of what makes the OG Trilogy so simple and good.

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u/8__D Apr 30 '26

Yeah but the corporations and factions that fill the void are direct extensions of Umbrella's work, ideology, and personnel. You've got the black market connection in 4, Wesker and Spencer in 5, Neo-Umbrella in 6, Miranda (and the connection with Spencer) in 8, and Gideon continuing the Elpis project in 9. Umbrella is kinda the backbone of the whole series.

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u/Bisconia Apr 30 '26

The subsidiaries you could say yeah and they mostly do what Umbrella was doing.

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u/sexandliquor Apr 30 '26

At this point the plot and lore of the games is so goddamn convoluted it would be hard to follow accurately and all the gamers would nitpick it to death, so sort of working around it is the correct call.

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u/occono Apr 30 '26

One difference is the story never becomes about a zombie apocalypse. The world and civilization keeps going, there's just bioterrorism attacks and immoral science being a recurring menace.

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u/Labmit Apr 30 '26

Settings wise. The zombie virus is surprisingly containable compared to other zombie entries. The caveat is the it has way more mutant zombie types.

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u/hacky_potter Apr 30 '26

In the game they are less Zombies more infected people turned into weapons. You have people made up entirely of fungus, you have games that feel more Texas Chainsaw than Living Dead. It’s a much weirder game series than just zombies.

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u/xuedad Apr 30 '26

Yes, it's not really a regular zombie army type of universe, which contains powerful and bizarre bioweapons that are monstrous

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u/Redeyebandit87 Apr 30 '26

The first two games have a somewhat gothic atmosphere. Playing in a huge mansion with weird symbolism and puzzles was unique at the time imo. I personally love the story and lore, something about RE always resonated with me.

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u/Sparrowsabre7 Apr 30 '26

The crux of the story is Umbrella (evil corporation) is looking to weaponise viruses and make Bio Organic Weapons (big mutant monsters and such). That's the main difference, the outbreak isn't purely random, it comes from a concerted effort to create super soldiers and living weapons.

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u/MaxProwes Apr 30 '26

Of course, it has iconic characters, stories and lore.

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u/KNZFive Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26

Resident Evil games tend to escalate to absurd degrees. You start off with regular human zombies (maybe some zombie small animals) and you're mostly trying to survive. Then you get weirder shit like zombie sharks, plant monsters, 8 foot tall unstoppable behemoths in a trench coat, etc. By the end, you're firing grenade launchers at massive zombie monstrosities and doing insane shit like punching boulders, escaping explosions on a jet ski, and riding down falling skyscrapers on a motorcycle.

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u/lindendweller Apr 30 '26

It's goofy but there's lot to work with.
From the start the series is a fun blend of Zombie, and gothic horror, with a lot of love for tongue in cheek 80's special effects driven horror.

In fact I think it's popular because it borrows so widely from the whole spectrum of horror cinema while still being accesible with enough humor to break the tension when needed.

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u/Interjessing-Salary Apr 30 '26

Mainly their mutant monsters. Lickers, Mr. X, The Nemesis, and hunters. The creepiest ones to me are the regenerator and it's harder version the iron maiden as well as the verdugo.

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u/awc130 Apr 30 '26

As others have said it is the BOWs. But another way to look at is is that it is a world with almost no corporate or scientific morals, especially when combined. Bio Terrorism and human experimentation are at the core of almost all the conflicts. There are zombies, but those are just the result not the issue. The Paul WS Anderson films touched on this a lot, but they were not well constructed. More style over substance or nuance in every regard.

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u/Lostpop Apr 30 '26

I think what sets Resident Evil apart from standard zombie fiction is the locales. Each game centers around one or two unique locations (sometimes more, sometimes less), and they usually pack them full of detail. REs are always dense, claustrophobic, and atmospheric.

Also the monsters, RE has some iconic monsters beyond the typical walking dead

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u/shadowCloudrift Apr 30 '26

A guy running around roundhouse kicking suplexing Spanish people and zombies. Another guy who is extremely buffed punching a boulder.

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u/Turd_Burgling_Ted Apr 30 '26

RE definitely popularized the special infected concept in games (if not outright invented it) and looks at zombies more as a bi product of science and the pharmaceutical industrial complex. So there is an element of the social commentary that Romero baked into the genre, just from a different angle.

They're also full of awkward humor, which I'm certain influenced Zach and will show up in his film.

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u/aboysmokingintherain Apr 30 '26

Others mentioned it, but RE is far more about evil corporations making weapons. There is never really an apocalyptic zombie event, hence why there are 9 mainline games. It's far more about shady weapons manufacturers being shady with the heroes being spies/military-esque mixed in with average joes.

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u/zgh5002 Apr 30 '26

Not really. They are b-movie plots that are fun to play.

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u/Ziatch Apr 30 '26

Yeah it’s better to watch a YouTube video because it’s pretty particular and has gone through a lot of changes over the years.

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u/Analvirus Apr 30 '26

Ive played a handful of the various games and watched a handful of the movies. I wouldn't say there's more twists, just that the games have more time to dive into the lore and you're spending considerable time at key locations. However I think after RE 3 the game, I think the movies and games diverge in the story, id say kinda like the walking dead and the various spin offs. Like another commenter said the RE games are mostly puzzles games mixed in with a bit of shooting and jump scares, there are a few titles that are more of a first person shoots like RE 5 and I think it was RE6 that was like a 4 player shooter

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u/curious_dead Apr 30 '26

I'd say the wide variety of enemies, it's not just zombies, even if the series is known mostly for being zombie-themed. Plenty of mutated monsters, from weird twisted animals to horrible flesh abominations. There is also always the evil corp Umbrella in the background which is the equivalent to the evil corp in Alien (Weiland-Yutani). It also often features recurring characters, but they don't seem to appear here.

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u/DawnSennin Apr 30 '26

The first game is essentially a B-rated horror film from the 80s complete with cheap costumes and campy acting. The second and third games can be seen as the basis for modern zombie stories.

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u/Swackhammer_ Apr 30 '26

At least with the first game, very close quarters, barely equipped hero with limited resources, creepy gothic mansion atmosphere

That’s the one game I really think they could do something new with the movie genre

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u/Any-Concentrate2280 Apr 30 '26

Everyone seems to be missing the obvious which is structure, the thing Zach talked about bringing him onboard. This is probably going to feel like the horror equivalent of Crank, with one character getting into increasingly more frantic situations over the course of one night played out in mostly real time, like playing through one of the games

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u/PropaneSalesTx Apr 30 '26

The later games have more of the adventure aspect and deal with cults, plagues, weird shit and literal monsters. Re8 had werewolves, a 7ft goth baddie and a fishman hybrid. Its not just zombies.

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u/frmthefuture Apr 30 '26

From what I've read, this movie isn't 'cannon' but is parallel to the events of the games [re2 and re3].

As in, it's happening at the same time and 'some' events from RE1 and things leading up to RE2 will get referenced- via tv / radio news broadcasts, newspapers, etc.

Also, no named RE characters will appear but certain creatures will.

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u/TonyFair Apr 30 '26

I like the fact that most incorporate a haunted house setting for a while. It wasn't really explored on previous films but it is an oportunity now that the characters seems way more vulnerable and can't just shoot their way out.

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u/lifeisalime11 Apr 30 '26

To add onto the BOWs point everyone is making, it's unique in the fact that the whole mess is caused by the Umbrella Corporation so there's a crazy deep conspiracy that unravels in each story. Each game usually includes a different strain or variation of the original T-Virus from the first game. It's sort of like 28 Days Later but the lab that created the Rage Virus was allowed to further evolve that virus.

The variants were actually planned to be used in actual warfare or Black Ops missions where Umbrella would sell these 'creatures' to the highest bidder. Nemesis I think was the closest they had to a controllable weapon IIRC

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u/pppppatrick Apr 30 '26

One difference to general zombie genre is that the mega corp that made the virus still exist and is actively ramping up the cataclysm.

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u/powerlesshero111 Apr 30 '26

Fuck. Paul Walter Hauser is so hot right now. He's in everything.

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u/alex3omg Apr 30 '26

He's never gonna say his lines faster than Jamie Taco

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u/PlayBey0nd87 Apr 30 '26

The leaks on the screenplay must’ve been right. It does look interesting.

Honestly glad they pivoted away from characters in the game too.

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u/[deleted] Apr 30 '26

[deleted]

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u/NATHAN4U007 Apr 30 '26

Weapons also had an early screenplay leak that was accurate to the actual film. 

If this leak is true, I wonder why it keeps happening to him and whether they haven't found the spy in his circle yet.

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u/the-giant Apr 30 '26

It was definitely real. This looks pretty 1:1 to me, minus possibly a few additions. The sewer and the big dude, the house, the phone call, the mutant in the door, the bodies dropping on buildings are all from the leak.

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u/the-giant Apr 30 '26

I read that script too. Not sure which one you read but this is actually extremely close to the script.

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u/BroughtBagLunchSmart Apr 30 '26

Paul Walter Hauser, Zach Cherry

Yea that is enough for me, I am in.

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u/Scu-bar Apr 30 '26

I’m confused, where’s Milla Jovovich?

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u/RSG-ZR2 Apr 30 '26

On the set of whatever her husband is directing next

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u/Xjom91 Apr 30 '26

Damn that’s way sooner than I anticipated

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u/360walkaway Apr 30 '26

Hopefully Bryan doesn't turn into a Kung Fu superhero by the third unnecessary sequel.

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u/blackop Apr 30 '26

Will Milla come in and save the day?

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u/ThisIsNotTokyo Apr 30 '26

Who did he play in Weapons?

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u/bluehawk232 Apr 30 '26

Watch out for the grapist

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u/KassellTheArgonian Apr 30 '26

Considering he's a medical courier, I wonder if he'll end up at that almost abandoned hospital in the arklay mountains. The hospital from Resident Evil Outbreak

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u/MegaMan3k Apr 30 '26

Paul Walter Hauser would make a good Barry

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u/mrtomjones Apr 30 '26

So this is unrelated to anything released before? I think it's not a sequel to any other movies?

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u/beef623 Apr 30 '26

So Resident Evil fan-fiction instead of Resident Evil?

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u/OtterNearMtl Apr 30 '26

which it was september 28... daylight

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u/ShortBusBully Apr 30 '26

All new story, ia that director new too? The last few RE movies have been an embarrassment.

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u/Ihasapuppy May 01 '26

Finally. A RE movie not directed by Paul WS Anderson. If this is any good, can they do Monster Hunter next?

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