Weapons director's Resident Evil film will be "entirely original story", so don't expect Leon Kennedy to make a star appearance

Zach Cregger’s forthcoming Resident Evil film will be an “entirely original story”, so won’t feature fan-favourite character Leon Kennedy.

The director of recent horror-hit Weapons spoke with Entertainment Weekly about his next film, based on Capcom’s game series.

“When you watch it, you’ll be like, ‘This is very Zach’,” he said. “It’s just [that] it takes place in the Resident Evil world. I don’t think fans of the games are gonna be bummed.”

Weapons star Austin Abrams will lead the Resident Evil film cast, with actor and professional wrestler Paul Walter Hauser also confirmed. Cregger has co-written the script with Shay Hatten.

“I’m not gonna steal Leon and put him in an original story. I think that would be presumptuous,” said Cregger. “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?”