Chandler Riggs of The Walking Dead Makes a Short Film for Resident Evil 7, Though 'Pleasing Everyone Is Impossible'

We're absolutely swamped with Resident Evil films right now. Lucky us.

We're currently inundated with Resident Evil movies, lucky us.

When you make a purchase through links on our site, we may receive an affiliate commission. Here's how it works.

Chandler Riggs may be best known for his role as Carl in The Walking Dead, but now some may know him as the director of the short fan adaptation of Resident Evil 7. The film is only 20 minutes long and takes place in the Baker's house and takes place in the garage fight scene between the protagonist Ethan Jacker and the infected person. The most painful thing about this short film isn't the graphic fight, but Ythan's face.

Fans of Resident Evil 7 and The Village know that Ethan Winters is quite the shy guy and almost never shows his face aside from a few instances in the Shadows of Rose DLC (and when you get the camera angle right). Since both games are played in first person, you don't have to spend a lot of time looking at the guy you're playing as, and Capcom really leans into this.

But Riggs decided not only to play Ethan, but to give him more of a facelift. "It was absolutely a scary thing," Riggs says in an interview with IGN. We're trying to do a lot of things that are super faithful and true to the game, but that's a big aspect that we're breaking.

Biohazard exclusive trailer: Chandler Riggs Resident Evil 7 fan film (2026) - YouTube

"But there's really no other good way to tell [the story] in live-action. I was going and going like, 'Okay, can we be first-person the whole time?' Can we avoid including his face or anything?' But the more we went around about it, the more I was like, I mean, if we're going to do this and get a bigger audience — more than people who've played the games — then we have to break those rules. It was very scary. I hope people are okay with that."

In this respect, Riggs sympathizes with Zack Kerger and his film interpretation of Resident Evil's leveling that "it's impossible to please everyone" and that "there's always going to be an unhappy crowd... but I think it's a great way to try to get more people into the show, into the franchise, and tell the story that you want to tell."

Zack Kerger admits that "I can't make Leon better," which is why he's using the original characters for the next Resident Evil movie.

Zach Kerger admits "I was naive" and apologizes in advance for his next Resident Evil movie, but I don't think he owes us anything.

The full trailer for Zach Cregger's Resident Evil is here and holy cow I think this one is really good

Riggs goes on to admit that adapting Resident Evil for the silver screen isn't easy, which is why he respects Kreger's choice to go his own way and do his own thing instead of being chained to the story.

"I mean, one of the big reasons I even made it was because I wanted to see a good, real live-action adaptation of Resident Evil. I can't wait to see the new movie," Darmriggs adds. The crew even tried to release their film before Resident Evil Kerger but unfortunately "the episodes just didn't match up that way".

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Stay up-to-date with the most important stories and best deals, as selected by the PC Gamer team.

Contact me for news and offers from other upcoming brands Receive emails from us from our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information, you agree to our terms and conditions and privacy policy and you are 16 years or older.

But Riggs points out that "a big reason I'm even doing this in the first place is because I love being on set and working with cool people," so he's occasionally toying with future collaborations with Kerger: "I love it all. Listen, my phone is open. Hit me!”

Eli is a news writer who has an unhealthy love for horror games, even if their greatest fear is being chased. When they're not screaming or hiding, you'll most likely find them testing their metal in Metroidvania or admiring their Pokemon TCG collection. Ellie previously worked as a writer at TechRadar Gaming and studied International Journalism and Documentary at JOMEC. Free time filming short documentaries about Smash Bros or any indie game that crosses their path.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please log out and then log back in, then you will be prompted to enter your display name.

The next Resident Evil movie will feature first-person POVs as it shows how originality is a moving target for a series that spans 30 years.

Zack Kerger may have made the best Resident Evil movie yet, but a group of fans aren't happy about it.

Zack Karger had to tone down the jokes in his upcoming Resident Evil movie because test screeners 'thought it was too funny'

Kojima says that when he played RE1 in 1996 he was "just like Brian" from Resident Evil: "I kept finishing game after game and yelling F***!"

Ben Affleck lost 3 years to Starcraft, has bravely strong opinions, and mourns RTS as a genre, so there's a good chance he'll be one of our regular commenters.

Cyberpunk 2077 is becoming a movie, although we've already gotten a great cyberpunk movie starring Keanu Reeves as a man named Johnny.

The last D&D episode of Critical Role was so stressful that I found myself making new noises from my mouth.

After a series of disasters where no one seems to be able to go well, I really don't know who is going to leave the next episode of Critical Role.

Kerger's Resident Evil is currently RE's third highest-grossing film with over $100 million at the domestic box office in less than 2 weeks.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced was a huge hit and now it's time for some big layoffs at the studio that made it.

The "godfather of artificial intelligence" worries that we are creating "alien beings" with artificial intelligence, with disturbing moral implications.

If New Blood had made Dusk 2, there would have been no Iron Lung, "and now David Szymanski has a movie that grossed $50 million"—so maybe it's wise not to make sequels.

WoW: Forever has a new type of ban to deal with real money transactions

Hogwarts Legacy's DLSS 5 update shows that the developers are listening to PC gamers to keep it away from the game's characters.