Resident Evil director Zach Cregger says he was "frustrated" that much of the conversation around his film had nothing to do with the movie itself. He made the comments during an appearance on The Town with Matthew Belloni, and they land after months of fan arguments that never seemed to stop.

The filmmaker behind Barbarian and Weapons was not shy about where the anger came from. He pointed to the noise surrounding the movie before it reached audiences, and he wasn’t talking about box office predictions or reviews.

"I think I was frustrated at the conversation around Resident Evil and how much of the conversation really didn’t have anything to do with the movie," he said.

That frustration explains why he now says he will likely steer clear of movies based on established IP in the future. For Cregger, the problem was not that viewers cared. It was what they cared about.

The Fans Wanted the Games, Not the Film

Cregger described the criticism as a fight over whether the movie matched the video games it came from. He said the questions kept coming back to the same place: was the film using the right characters, and had he gotten the lore wrong?

"It had everything to do with whether the movie was living up to the different standards that different fans of the games had," he said. "Whether it was using the characters or not, or what did I get wrong in the lore? It was just a lot about, ‘Why isn’t this like the source material, or why is it good that it’s not like the source material?’ All the conversation just felt like it was about not the movie."

The skeptics stuck to a familiar set of complaints between the first trailer and the theatrical premiere. Where’s Leon? Why is it snowing in Raccoon City? Why does Austin Abrams’ character have a smartphone? For this vocal group, the central worry was what the film meant for the games. Far less attention went to whether the movie could stand on its own inside Capcom’s wider universe.

Cregger tried to explain that he took creative liberties to improve the film’s overall quality. Those explanations did little to calm fans who wanted to see the faces and places they love on the big screen. He eventually admitted he was naive to expect any other outcome.

The Box Office Answered Back

The movie’s commercial performance tells a different story from the online outrage. Resident Evil opened to a whopping $108 million at the worldwide box office. Its reported budget was $75 million, so the opening weekend alone put it in a strong position.

Audiences kept coming in the weeks that followed. As the Halloween weekend draws to a close, the film has crossed $400 million across the globe. The average moviegoer who bought a ticket seemed far less bothered by the fan debate than the message boards were. Many were happy with the snowy new take on Raccoon City, and the premiere drew great reviews.

That kind of run is likely enough to convince Sony to bring Cregger back for a sequel. The filmmaker has said he had ideas for a Resident Evil 2. He has also said he wanted to step away from franchise films once this one was out. Those two statements now sit side by side.

Cregger was candid about his own surprise. "I’m proud of the movie. I really love the movie," he said. "I realize I should have known better going into it. I should have understood that was going to be the case, but for some reason, I was a little shocked."

Where Cregger Goes Next

Now that the dust is settling, Cregger has suggested he is not particularly interested in carrying the weight of an existing IP. He still leaves the door open a crack. For him, it is a "never say never" situation.

The filmmaker is already tinkering with his next original project. The Flood is a sci-fi thriller that he wrote, produced, and directed. It stars Jennifer Lawrence, a Hunger Games veteran, and it premieres August 11, 2028.

The Resident Evil fight showed how quickly a film can get lost inside a fan argument. Cregger’s film made money, drew crowds, and still ended up debated mostly for what it was not. His answer is to go back to original stories, where the conversation has to be about the movie in front of people.