Resident Evil (2026) Has No Leon — And That Might Save It

Resident Evil (2026) Has No Leon — And That Might Save It Every Resident Evil movie has been asked the same question: does this actually feel like Resident Evil? Zach Cregger's answer is to remove the characters everyone recognises — and follow a medical courier who is terrible at surviving. Resident Evil (2026) does not star Leon Kennedy, Jill Valentine or Alice. It follows Bryan, played by Austin Abrams, on one delivery during the worst night in Raccoon City's history. This video is about why that decision is either the smartest thing an adaptation has tried in twenty years, or the reason it fails. We look at what the Alice films proved commercially, what Welcome to Raccoon City proved by going the other way, what Cregger has actually said about pacing, ammunition and the feeling of playing these games, and what a 2,000-pound practical creature puppet changes about how horror lands on screen. CHAPTERS 0:00 A voicemail nobody is going to hear 0:20 The idea that sounds backwards 0:59 Twenty years of Resident Evil movies 1:45 What happened in 2021 2:23 Why Cregger will not touch Leon 2:53 Bryan — a courier with no combat skills 3:34 Making a movie feel like playing one 4:56 What RE7 and RE4 actually gave him 6:41 The 2,000-pound practical monster 7:34 Why Zach Cregger 8:49 What the film loses, and what it buys 10:00 What Resident Evil actually is 10:50 The real question SOURCES All footage is official promotional material from Sony Pictures — the Resident Evil (2026) trailer and teaser, the studio's own featurettes, and the trailers for Resident Evil (2002), Afterlife (2010), The Final Chapter (2016) and Welcome to Raccoon City (2021). Box office figures from Box Office Mojo and The Numbers. Full source list in the pinned comment. The ~2,000 lb creature puppet is REPORTED from IGN's set visit, not a figure Sony has published. It is labelled as reported on screen. Portraits: Zach Cregger photographed by Kevin Paul (CC BY 4.0); Austin Abrams photographed by Harald Krichel (CC BY-SA 4.0), both via Wikimedia Commons. Resident Evil opens in theaters September 18. #ResidentEvil #ZachCregger #ResidentEvil2026