Weapons Director’s Resident Evil Movie Snags Fantastic Four Mole Man Star
Zach Cregger is turning up the heat on Resident Evil, with his new movie surging into high gear and the undead poised to rise again.
Paul Walter Hauser just boarded Zach Cregger's Resident Evil movie, and honestly, that is a fun piece of casting. The project is shaping up to be a legit return to the spirit of the games without rehashing old movie continuity, which should calm a lot of longtime fans and confuse exactly no one.
So what is this Resident Evil?
Per Deadline, Cregger's take is set 'in the world of the games' but tells a brand-new story with original characters. Think Prime Video's Fallout: same universe, fresh narrative. That also means Austin Abrams is not playing Leon S. Kennedy, despite the internet really wanting that to be true. Abrams, by the way, previously worked with Cregger on the horror movie Weapons.
Who is in and who is making it
- Paul Walter Hauser has joined the cast in an undisclosed role.
- Austin Abrams is also starring, but not as Leon Kennedy.
- Zach Cregger is directing and co-wrote the script with Shay Hatten (Rebel Moon, Ballerina).
- The film is planned to hit theaters in 2026.
Where else you will see Hauser
Hauser is on a serious run. He pops up in two 2025 studio swings: The Naked Gun and Marvel's Fantastic Four, playing Mole Man in the latter — a villain who ends up having a change of heart. He is also set to star alongside Jeremy Allen White in a Bruce Springsteen biopic, and he will play the late Chris Farley in a biopic directed by Josh Gad. Busy is an understatement.
Cregger on the vibe (and a funny little inside-baseball detail)
Cregger has made it clear he is chasing the feel of the games, not the previous film series. He even admitted he has never seen the Paul W.S. Anderson movies, which is a little wild considering how long those ran — but it also explains why he is zeroing in on the game experience rather than the movie legacy.
"All I can say is that it is true to the experience of the games... But I think the people that are fans of the games are probably going to be stoked."
Bottom line: a new story set inside classic Resident Evil territory, a director with a horror track record, Shay Hatten co-writing, and Paul Walter Hauser joining Austin Abrams. If Cregger lands the tone he is promising, 2026 just got a little more interesting.