New Resident Evil Image: Zack Cregger's Dark Reboot

A single frame can change expectations. Ahead of Fantastic Fest, a new image from Zack Cregger’s take on Resident Evil landed online and it’s a jolting glimpse: Austin Abrams mid-flight, desperate, caught in what looks like one of the movie’s most vicious set pieces.

It’s an image that asks more questions than it answers. Who is he running from? What exactly is falling apart behind him? The still doesn’t merely tease spectacle; it hints at a tone—gritty, claustrophobic, and deliberately darker than many past screen adaptations.

Cregger has been on a surprising hot streak. His 2022 feature Barbarian, made for roughly $4.5 million, went on to gross over $46 million worldwide and quietly reshaped expectations for low-budget horror. He doubled down last year with Weapons, a film that critics called one of the best of 2025 and that reportedly amassed $270 million globally against a $38 million budget. Rewards followed: Amy Madigan’s performance in Weapons even earned her a long-awaited Oscar, one of horror’s rare wins in that arena.

Those results explain the confidence behind this new Resident Evil. But don’t expect a straight adaptation of any single game. This is not a retread. Instead, Cregger is offering an original chapter set inside the franchise’s established world—an approach that may unsettle purists but has precedent in recent, successful game-to-screen reinventions like Fallout.

The cast reads like a mix of familiar faces and intriguing wild cards: Austin Abrams is joined by Paul Walter Hauser, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis and Janu Wilson. The screenplay comes from Shane Hatten and Zack Cregger—Hatten being the writer fans will recognize from his work on John Wick: Chapter 3, John Wick: Chapter 4 and Ballerina.

This is not a remake; it’s a new strand of Resident Evil’s mythology, one that promises to be both faithful to the series’ DNA and willing to carve its own path.

Cregger’s next moves after this one are already on the horizon. He’s set to direct a sci-fi feature titled The Flood and is overseeing a Weapons prequel focused on the character Gladys, signaling that his appetite for genre storytelling is only growing.

The new Resident Evil is slated to arrive in theaters on September 18, 2026. Expect chills, a heavy atmosphere, and a few surprises—because if the single image is any indicator, Cregger is aiming to make this entry feel lived-in and, more importantly, dangerous. Will it satisfy fans of the games? Time will tell. For now, the picture is enough to make you sit forward in your seat and watch every trailer twice.