•Chandler Riggs, best known for playing Carl in The Walking Dead, has released his own fan film adapting an iconic moment from Resident Evil 7, and says he would love to collaborate with director Zach Cregger on another movie set in the franchise.
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 set further along in the games’ timeline, in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.
Riggs adapted the iconic garage fight between Ethan Winters and Jack Baker into a roughly 20-minute film, not for fame or acclaim but “merely for the love of the game.” He told IGN that he simply wanted to bring this moment to life on-screen. Given the timing of his film alongside Cregger’s big-budget take on Capcom’s flagship horror franchise, those questions were inevitable.
“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,” Riggs said.
Cregger’s film was widely well-received but has proven divisive among hardcore fans who wished for a 1:1 adaptation of the games. Cregger adamantly opposed that approach, believing the games already told their stories perfectly. Given that Riggs plays the famously faceless Ethan Winters in his own fan film, he was aware of how fans might react to his 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… 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,” Riggs 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.”
Riggs said he weighed whether to shoot entirely first-person or avoid showing Ethan’s face at all. “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 said he’d love the chance to make a feature-length movie adapting RE7 someday, as well as the opportunity to work with Cregger on another Resident Evil film 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,” he said. “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… 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 this never happens, though — Cregger has said he’s never touching a franchise film again due to the strong negative response from a vocal portion of the Resident Evil fanbase. He already has ideas for a sequel, however, 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 Berita 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.
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