The first trailer for Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil movie might not have featured Leon S. Kennedy, but something familiar could still be spotted — if you looked very carefully.
In an exclusive trailer breakdown video for IGN, Cregger himself highlighted several nods to the original Resident Evil games included in the sneak peek footage — most notably, a cheekily-hidden green herb.
And for those thinking this is just a common garden weed or pot plant, no — this is very much supposed to be the iconic green herb from the Resident Evil series, with Cregger noting he had tried to replicate its specific bucket from Resident Evil 4.
“There’s a plant, screen left, over his right shoulder, you can kind of see it,” Cregger told IGN. “In the movie the shot pulls out further and you can see it [better]. I took the green herb from Resident Evil 4 and I replicated the bucket exactly, you can see the bucket there at the very end of that shot with the horizontal copper striping on it and the herb is exact for Resident Evil 4.
“Even though this probably lives in the world of [Resident Evil] 2,” Cregger continued, “I just wanted to use a little bit of 4 in here just because it’s my favorite. And I have some other items from 4 scattered around in this movie that people will notice.”
While less specific, Cregger also pointed to the shots in the trailer where the film’s main character is seen scrabbling through drawers for ammunition. This, he said, was also a well-known Resident Evil trait.
“One of the things that’s so integral to playing Resident Evil is you’re constantly searching for healing items and ammunition,” Cregger notes. “That’s what he’s doing in these scenes where he’s going through the drawers. He’s found a shotgun, he’s got no shells, so he’s got to comb this house for these vital bits of ammunition. You can’t really do a proper love letter to the games without that.”
Cregger also said he had structured his movie similarly to Resident Evil 4, which features several distinct locations and action sequences like its boss fight on a boat and minecart ride in between, rather than focusing solely on one creepy mansion.
“There’s so much to do in that game, and that’s something I really dug about 4,” he concluded. “You’re not just trapped in one mansion and you have gotta unlock a room and go here, you’re really moving through a world. And that’s something I took from that game in particular.”
Finally, Cregger said fans would realize that the film’s characters will often become stuck behind locked doors — with the need to then find a key to continue his progress. This is, of course, another Resident Evil staple.
As for when the movie is set, Cregger stated that it takes place on “Day 1, Raccoon City” at the beginning of the outbreak, at the same time that Leon was getting stuck into his first day as a police officer. (This places the movie’s events at the end of September 1998, even though there’s snow on the ground here, which doesn’t really gel with what players saw of the city in Resident Evil 2.)
Initial reaction to the trailer from some fans yesterday featured notable criticism that the movie looked less like a Resident Evil adaptation, and more like a 28 Days Later spinoff. Others, however, praised the fact that Cregger was not rehashing a story that we’ve all seen previously — and as recently as 2021’s poorly-received Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City reboot.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
