Resident Evil Is Having A Moment Again 

The lore of zombies goes back. Way back. In films, the earliest one is believed to have been White Zombie in 1932. But it was a very “sanitized” version of zombies (they were controlled by magic and not violent) — not the human-eating ones you’re thinking of. 

Things changed in 1968. Famed zombie filmmaker George A. Romero made Night of the Living Dead and ushered in the idea of zombies that carries on today. You know, the ones that rise form the dead and establish the world to death? Yeah, that’s almost all Romero’s vision. 

Movies would continue to flesh out the idea, but video games hardly caught up. The graphics just weren’t good enough until games went 3D.

Then came Resident Evil. It was released in 1996 from Japanese game studio, Capcom. The survivor horror aspects were truly groundbreaking at the time. Games had never been called “scary” until this moment, and helped usher in the next 30 years of horror video games. Silent Hill. Dead Space. The Last of Us. The list goes on that owe Resident Evil some credit.

In between that though, Resident Evil lost some of its luster. It had to become more of an “action game” (with first-person view rather than its classic third-person style) to keep pace with popular games. We mean, even Call of Duty had a zombie game mode. RE didn’t go away, it just became harder to distinguish from other zombie games. 

Until now. Resident Evil is officially back. 

Keep reading, and we’ll tell you about its revival (pun intended) in not just the video games, but an upcoming movie too. The zombie apocalypse is officially on, folks! 

Best-Selling Game Ever?

At the tail end of February, Resident Evil dropped its ninth game (chronological, not counting remakes) of the franchise. It’s called Requiem and the response, so far, has been historically good.

Let’s talk sales. In the first five days of its release, Capcom said the game had sold 5 million copies. This is the most in franchise history, and significantly so. Before this, the remake of Resident Evil 2 (released in 2019) did 3 million sales in its first five days. That game would go on to sell 16.8 million copies total (a franchise best). So we wouldn’t be surprised if Requirem ends up close to 20 million sold when it’s all said and done. You can actually bet on the sales outcome at popular Florida betting apps (another sign the franchise is piercing through the zeitgeist). 

We’re confident Requiem can do that number because this one is also available on Nintendo Switch 2. Previously, the zombie fun was only on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. Having a presence on the highly popular Nintendo console should give RE a lot of legs this time around. 

Why is it selling so well, though? Well, a series of remakes over the past few years reinvigorated the franchise. A whole new generation of gamers who weren’t alive for the first-ever game 30 years ago experienced the survival horror that the franchise invented through those remakes.

Plus, Requiem features franchise favorite Leon as the main character. He had been missing from some of the new iterations until now. His appearance, and the game as a whole, has received rave reviews online. This response is why a new movie inspired by the game could put the series into another stratosphere. 

Resident Evil Movies Get Another Restart

Resident Evil didn’t just change the video game industry with its 1996 introduction. They changed how they’re adapted for the big screen. 

Once upon a time, making video games into a movie was a dirty word and/or thought in Hollywood. Before Resident Evil, it was a bad strategy to do so. Famously, Super Mario Bros and Street Fighter movies bombed with epic proportions. Mortal Kombat did ok, but was not a runaway success either. 

That all changed with the Resident Evil movie in 2002. Starring female lead Milla Jovovich, it spawned a massively-successful movie franchise. The original iteration featured six movies before being rebooted in 2021. In total, the movies have become the highest-grossing in zombie lore with over a $1 billion in ticket sales. 

The success was two-fold. First, it actually revived the zombie horror genre itself. The early 2000s were a mini-boom period that spawned hits like 28 Days Later (a franchise still going), Dawn of the Dead remake, and a spoof, Shaun of the Dead. 

But perhaps more importantly, it cemented video games as adaptable works. The Last of Us become of the biggest hit TV shows. A new Super Mario Bros movie grossed $1.3 billion, one of the highest of all time. Video game movies and shows are here for the long haul, and Resident Evil played a huge part in that. 

That’s why Resident Evil is getting another movie reboot (yes, only five years after the last reboot). It’s scheduled to be released in 2026, but here’s why we think it has a chance of continuing the success of Requiem. Zach Cregger is the director. He’s fresh off the success of Weapons and Barbarians before that — two legit horror movies. 

There’s been no trailer released for this new movie, but again, Cregger is a horror guy, not action. All previous movies have been action-oriented so it’s a departure. Getting a true horror-based Resident Evil on the big screen has the potential to put this franchise on par with recent zombie hits like Train To Busan and 28 Years Later.

The blowout success of Requiem only adds momentum to the movie’s pre-release hype. When it’s all said and done, 2026 might be the year we say Resident Evil is officially back for good.