The first trailer for Sony’s upcoming Resident Evil film dropped on April 30 and while the movie has a September 18 release date locked in, it has sparked a wave of frustration among fans of the beloved horror franchise.
Directed by Zach Cregger, who also helmed last year’s Weapons, the film takes a completely different approach from what most fans expected. Instead of following iconic game characters like Leon S Kennedy or Jill Valentine, the story centers on a brand new protagonist, a courier who gets caught up in the chaos of a Raccoon City outbreak, according to Variety. Cregger deliberately chose to create an original story rather than adapt the games directly.
For a lot of fans, that decision did not go down well.
Public reaction
The reaction on X was swift and largely negative. Many fans felt the trailer had almost nothing to do with the games they grew up with.
“So, this is basically a generic horror movie, and they just slapped the Resident Evil name on it,” one user wrote.
Another fan pointed out what they felt was missing from the trailer: “You need to have some Resident Evil in your Resident Evil movie adaptation. Where’s the RPD? Where’s Umbrella? Where’s even some familiar game music? There’s thousands of horror movies, but only one RE franchise. Just a trailer but TEASE those things. Not just the horror.”
While another wrote, “If I am going to watch Resident Evil, I want to watch one about the game, not some side character that isn’t even in the game. Now it is just some zombie movie without the main characters and story.”
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One viewer was even more blunt: “It LITERALLY has nothing from Resident Evil….like LITERALLY NOTHING.”
However few users had a positive take about the film, one wrote, “Uhh, this looks dope. Some poor fuck trying to survive the RE world. Im down. You guys complaining it’s not the RE story, go play the games. It doesn’t replace them, and there’s near a 100% chance it won’t be as good. So lets have some fun with the universe. This doesn’t stop someone from doing a story on the main characters. Stop bitching.”
A franchise with a lot of history
According to Variety, the pushback makes more sense when you consider how long and how deep the Resident Evil franchise runs. The original game launched on PlayStation in 1994 and has since expanded to more than a dozen sequels and remakes, including this year’s Resident Evil Requiem.
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On the film side, there have already been six movies. The series began with the 2002 film starring Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez with Jovovich going on to lead five more installments through 2017. In 2021, filmmaker Johannes Roberts attempted a reboot with Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Collectively, the film franchise has grossed over $1.2 billion at the global box office.