Zach Cherry had seen none of the Resident Evil films and played none of the games: 'I'm a scaredy-cat'
Cherry signed on because of Zach Cregger, not the franchise, and says reading the script was enough to calm his nerves.
I suppose if you were expecting the latest Resident Evil film to be helmed by a lifelong fan or a die-hard gamer, you’d be wrong in the case of Zach Cherry—the new face of the franchise. For anyone catching the brickbats on social media, yes, he genuinely hadn’t watched a single film, nor touched the iconic survival horror games, before landing the gig. Which, honestly, is a bit brilliant in a profession famously full of fibs about ‘always loving the series’ since childhood.
‘Zero. I'm a scaredy-cat. I had not watched any of them.’
So, that's Zach Cherry himself, flatly owning up to it. Before he stepped onto the Raccoon City set, he'd never even seen Milla Jovovich sprint across a flaming corridor in slow motion, let alone tried to outlast a zombie dog in the original game. Too scary, he said—several times over.
If you’re after what tipped Cherry into finally facing the monsters (and, possibly, the audience at an actual premiere), he admits to a change of heart thanks to the script itself. Turns out, reading exactly how gruesome things get is a bit of a confidence booster. ‘In the last three years I’ve started watching horror, so I think I’ll be okay, especially because I have read the script. So that will help.’ Fair enough.
Why Cherry Actually Signed On
But don’t go thinking he joined the new film out of some sudden love of Umbrella Corp and T-Virus lore. It was all about the man in the director’s chair—Zach Cregger. Cherry nearly gushes when he says it, pointing directly to loyalty to Cregger as his reason for signing on, not the undead or the franchise legend itself.
‘I love Zach’s stuff, you know, and so I was just like really excited to do anything that he was doing. And I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.’
And, well, the numbers say he might be right. The reboot’s opening weekend smashed franchise records, pulling in about $60 million at the US box office. That’s miles ahead of Resident Evil: Afterlife’s previous best in 2010, which managed a ‘mere’ $26.65 million by comparison.
$60 million opening weekend sets a new record for the Resident Evil film series.
This new take ditches the continuity tangle of the six Jovovich movies plus 2021’s Welcome to Raccoon City—instead, director Zach Cregger and co-writer Shay Hatten have built a fresh story from scratch, still rooted in the game world, but not beholden to everything that came before. Sony must be buzzing, considering expectations were nowhere near those current box office numbers.
Read more: Cregger's Resident Evil doubled the franchise's best-ever opening — and beat his own Weapons