Key Takeaways
- Cast Announcement: Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, and Johnno Wilson have joined the cast of Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil movie.
- Character Details: Cherry will portray a scientist, while Reis will play an ex-military character originally written for a male actor.
- Production Timeline: Filming is scheduled to commence in mid-October in Prague.
- Original Storyline: Cregger emphasizes that the film will be an entirely original story, distinct from previous films and games.
The cast for Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil movie is coming together as THR reports that Zach Cherry (Severance), Kali Reis (True Detective: Night Country), and Johnno Wilson (I Love That for You) have joined the project.
As far as who the actors will be playing, Wilson’s role is unknown, but Cherry is said to be playing a scientist at a hospital, and Reis is set to play an ex-military character that was initially written for a male actor. Austin Abrams, who appeared in Cregger’s Weapons, will star in Resident Evil, and it was announced last month that Paul Walter Hauser (The Fantastic Four: First Steps) had also joined the cast. Cregger will direct from a script he co-wrote with Shay Hatten.
Production is slated to begin mid-October in Prague.
There have been seven live-action Resident Evil films — six led by Milla Jovovich and the 2021 reboot Welcome to Raccoon City — but Cregger has made it clear that his movie will be “an entirely original story,” unrelated to any of the previous films or the games.
“When you watch it, you’ll be like, ‘This is very Zach.’ It’s just [that] it takes place in the Resident Evil world,” he explained. “I don’t think fans of the games are gonna be bummed.“
Cregger continued, “I’m not gonna steal Leon and put him in an original story. I think that would be presumptuous. But I respect the games enough where I’m gonna like tell a Resident Evil story in the Resident Evil canon that still leaves everything they love intact from the games, you know what I mean? I think that when you see it, you’ll understand how I can be obsessed with original ideas and still make a movie that is an IP-based thing. I know that doesn’t make a lot of sense now, but I hope that it will later.“
Weapons was an enormous success for Cregger, not to mention Warner Bros. The film grossed over $266 million worldwide and earned rave reviews. The film is set to be released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on October 14.
