Chandler Riggs, best known for playing Carl in The Walking Dead, made his own fan film adapting an iconic moment from Resident Evil 7 — and he’d love to collaborate with Zach Cregger on another movie in the RE universe, if he’s up for it.
Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil adaptation hit theaters in September to rave reviews, becoming the most financially successful film in the entire franchise. Just a month later, Riggs is releasing his own Resident Evil short film further along in the games’ timeline in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.
Riggs adapted the iconic garage fight between Ethan Winters and Jack Baker in a high-octane 20-minute journey, not for fame and acclaim, but merely for the love of the game. Riggs told us that he simply wanted to bring this moment to life on-screen — but given the timing of his film and Cregger’s Resident Evil movie, we had to ask about his thoughts on how close his project was to Cregger’s big-budget take on Capcom’s flagship horror franchise.
“We were in pre-production when the article came out that Zack Cregger was going to do his [movie]. I was like, ‘Oh man, all right, we got to get ours out first.’ We were trying to beat the clock and get it out about a month ago, but parts just didn’t align that way,” he explained.
“I’ve been looking forward to [Cregger’s RE movie] for so long,” he added. “And I mean, one of the big reasons I even made this is, you know, I was just dying to see a good, true-to-the-game live-action adaptation of Resident Evil. I cannot wait to see the new one.”
Cregger’s Resident Evil flick was widely well-received, but it has proven divisive among hardcore fans who wished to see a 1:1 adaptation of the games. Cregger was adamantly against doing this, believing the games already told their stories perfectly — and given that Riggs plays the famously faceless Ethan Winters in his own fan film, he was well-aware of how fans might feel about his own take on the source material.
“Look, it’s impossible to please everybody, you know?” he admitted. “I think there’s always going to be a crowd that is unhappy, but I think that it’s a great way to try to get more people into the series, into the franchise, and tell a story that you want to tell. It is not an easy thing; doing a Resident Evil film with Leon and Jill and everyone, that’s a tall order, you know what I mean? Those characters are so iconic from the games, and it’s not an uneasy thing to do. So I totally respect going your own direction and doing your own thing.
“It was absolutely an intimidating thing,” he said of playing Ethan Winters, whose face is shown throughout his film. “We’re trying to do so much else super faithful and true to the game, but this is a huge aspect that we are breaking from it. But there isn’t really another good way to tell [the story] in a live-action format. I was going back and forth like ‘Okay, could we do first person the whole time? Could we avoid getting his face in or anything?’ But the more we went back and forth on it, the more I was like, ‘I mean, if we are going to do this and are going to appeal to a wider audience — more than just the people who played the games — then we’re going to have to break those rules. It was very intimidating. Hopefully people are okay with it.”
Riggs is a massive Resident Evil fan, and his fan film is proof of this. Of course, he admitted that he’d love the chance to make a feature-length movie adapting RE7 someday — as well as the chance of working with Zach Cregger on another RE movie, if the director is willing to return to the franchise.
“A huge reason for me even doing this in the first place is that I love being on set and collaborating with cool people, and that’s all it is at the end of the day,” he told us. “And just because I want to be on set more, and if I can’t be on set doing more films or TV shows or whatever else, then I’ll just make it myself. I’ll just make it happen. And that’s a huge proponent of this. So, if [Cregger] wants to continue in the universe, I’m all for it. Listen, my phone is open. Hit my line!”
It’s possible that this never happens, though, given that Cregger has said he’s never touching a franchise film again due to the strong negative response he received from a vocal portion of the Resident Evil fanbase. That being said, he already has ideas for a sequel, so there’s no telling where the future of RE’s film adaptations lie.
Riggs’ Resident Evil fan film hits the internet on October 14, starring Chandler Riggs as Ethan Winters, Jason Douglas as Jack Baker, Mary Rachel Quinn, Eugenie Bonderant, Johnathan O’Niel, and Sam Coyles.
Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.
