Resident Evil director confirms lead actor was nearly killed on set of video game movie reboot
Gaming fans are set to eat well in 2026, and while most of the conversation is taken up by upcoming releases like Marvel's Wolverine, Gears of War: E-Day, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, we don't think anyone is ready for the goliath that is GTA VI.
Away from actual video games, the likes of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Fallout season 2 have kept us entertained on the small and silver screen. Horror hounds are in for a treat (or maybe a trick), as Zach Cregger's Resident Evil reboot is coming in August 2026.
While die-hard Resi fans will likely take some convincing that we need another take on Capcom's beloved series, one real-life horror story reveals how different things could've been on the set of the film.
Many of you will know Cregger for 2022's Barbarian, but he really hit the big time with 2025's Weapons. Even though Weapons earned Amy Madigan the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress thanks to her portrayal of Aunt Gladys, there was a ton of praise for Austin Abrams's part as James.
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Abrams takes the lead as Bryan in Resident Evil, but according to Cregger, a tragic incident nearly killed him while filming the reboot.
Resident Evil has a death-defying stunt
In Resident Evil, Abrams plays Bryan as a medical courier who is caught in the midst of the T-Virus zombie outbreak that we assume consumes Raccoon City. Expect buckets of blood, and apparently, this is what could've cost Abrams his life.
Speaking to Dread Central, Cregger explained how a massive blood bag nearly struck his lead actor. The scene is featured prominently in the trailers, with zombies leaping off the roof of buildings on either side of the street and exploding as they hit the ground.
"So we had to design this thing where he’s just running with bodies falling and detonating all around him," said Cregger. "I knew I didn’t want to do it with VFX. So I was like, how do we do this?“
Confirming that all the explosions are real, Cregger continued: "And the way to do it is, you get a bunch of cranes, and you have all these body-sized blood bags, and you rehearse the sh*t out of how they’re going to fall, and how fast he’s going to run, and then you just shoot it."
With Abrams running and the bags exploding as planned, Cregger added: "One triggered too early, and it missed him by inches. And these things are all like one hundred and fifty pounds, and would have killed him if he had been one step to the right. He would have died."
Even wilder, Cregger admitted that the moment is actually in the movie: "So it’s f**king worth it. I was pretty stoked."
Before you chastise the director, Cregger assured the outlet that he was glad Abrams was safe and checked on him after the cameras stopped rolling.
Resident Evil thankfully managed to avoid the kind of tragedy that befell 1994's The Crow when Brandon Lee was fatally shot during filming, although Cregger said Abrams still suffered several on-set injuries due to the movie's physical nature.
Third time's a charm for Resident Evil
Either way, it sounds like Cregger’s Resident Evil is a very different take on what we've seen before.
Capcom's first Resident Evil came 'screaming' onto the PlayStation in 1996, while Paul W. S. Anderson's live-action Resident Evil movie arrived in 2002. Milla Jovovich led a franchise of six movies, and even though they were criticised for largely ignoring the games, as well as never faring too well among critics, they grossed over $1.2 billion globally.
After things felt like they came to a natural conclusion with 2016's Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, Johannes Roberts' Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City stuck much closer to the games but was a critical and commercial flop.
Cregger's reboot represents the third attempt at a big-screen adaptation, but let's not forget Netflix’s maligned Resident Evil TV series that was canned after just eight episodes.
2026's Resident Evil looks like it has a few Easter egg winks to the games, although we're not expecting a last-minute cameo from Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine.
Hoping that Cregger can deliver once again, this could finally be the start of a Resident Evil movie franchise that can do the IP justice.