(Photo Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)
Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil is one of the best-reviewed video game adaptations ever released, and while a Resident Evil 2 isn’t guaranteed just yet, the ending of Cregger’s movie sets one up perfectly.
The movie features Euphoria star Austin Abrams as a courier who winds up stranded in a town where he must fight for his survival. Alongside Abrams, the movie also stars Paul Walter Hauser, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, and Johnno Wilson. The new Resident Evil movie is directed by Cregger, who co-wrote the screenplay with Army of the Dead and John Wick: Chapter 4 scribe Shay Hatten.
“In an all-new story, Resident Evil follows Bryan, 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,” reads the official synopsis.
While no sequel has been confirmed just yet, a second movie makes too much sense given the ending of the movie. However, there’s one specific condition that should happen if it does.
Resident Evil 2 is perfectly set up, if Cregger wants to return
Resident Evil follows the story of Bryan, a medical courier tasked with taking an undisclosed, high-level package to Raccoon City. The device is later revealed to be a stabilizing agent needed to create a cure for an outbreak that began hours prior, and has turned people into zombie-like creatures.
Without getting too deep into the movie, Bryan makes it to Raccoon City, but is bitten along the way. While he does get the stabilizing agent into the Umbrella Corporation’s hands, it doesn’t turn out great for him. The film ends, rather predictably, with the cure not making it out of Raccoon City, as Bryan turns into a giant, monster-like creature just as the National Guard arrives into the city.
By and large, the movie ends up treating Bryan almost like an NPC in the Resident Evil games. Instead of being the main character of a game and making it all the way to the end, Bryan ends up being one of the many tragic cases of Raccoon City, and succumbs to whatever virus the movie has decided to go with for its connection to the games.
While it is a bleak ending, it’s one that actually sets up a future movie quite well. With no real protagonist left to bring back, a new movie could continue in the aftermath of Raccoon City’s outbreak, and what happens next. Thankfully, there are actually tons of things to pull from, including the third Resident Evil. A movie exploring other viruses, like Resident Evil 4’s Las Plagas, could also be done.
Of course, the one condition here would be bringing back Cregger to do so. His direction of the film perfectly captured the feeling of the video game, while retaining many of the horror elements along the way. While the movie did get a bit too comedic at times, Cregger clearly knows how to translate the games to the big screen in a great way. A sequel would only have a ton of allure if he were involved.
Thankfully, Cregger may be willing to return. While he previously said that he wasn’t fond of the franchise formula, Resident Evil may have changed his mind. Speaking to Polygon, Cregger said that he’d begun thinking of “other ideas” of how future movies could go.
“That was not what I was thinking when I was making the movie,” Cregger said. “I was thinking one and done. Now that it’s completed, I can’t help myself. This is just the way my brain works. I’ve already got other ideas of what could happen.”
A sequel likely wouldn’t happen for some time, as Cregger is set to work on another movie, The Flood. But due to Resident Evil’s massive success at the box office, Sony should be offering him whatever it takes to return and do another.
