Walking Dead's Chandler Riggs made a Resident Evil 7 fan film and wants to team up with Zach Cregger

Chandler Riggs — Carl from The Walking Dead — has released a 20-minute fan film adapting the garage fight between Ethan Winters and Jack Baker from Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. He made it purely out of love for the games, but the timing put him in direct conversation with Zach Cregger's big-budget Resident Evil movie, which hit theaters in September to strong reviews and became the highest-grossing film in the franchise's history.

Riggs says his team was already in pre-production when news broke that Cregger had signed on for his adaptation. "We were trying to beat the clock and get it out about a month ago, but parts just didn't align that way," he explained. One of his main motivations was simply wanting to see a faithful live-action take on RE7 — something he felt hadn't been done yet. His film does break one of the game's most sacred rules: Ethan Winters' face is shown on screen, whereas the games keep him a faceless first-person protagonist throughout. Riggs wrestled with the decision, exploring whether the whole short could be shot in first person, but ultimately concluded that showing Ethan's face was necessary to reach audiences beyond existing fans. "If we are going to appeal to a wider audience — more than just the people who played the games — then we're going to have to break those rules," he said.

Cregger's Resident Evil film has proven divisive among hardcore fans who wanted a direct game adaptation, though Cregger himself was always clear he had no interest in a 1:1 retelling. Riggs is sympathetic to that approach. "Those characters are so iconic from the games, and it's not an uneasy thing to do. So I totally respect going your own direction," he said. RE7: Biohazard, released by Capcom in 2017, was itself a major reinvention of the franchise — shifting to first-person perspective and isolating players in the Baker family's Louisiana plantation. It's a natural fit for a contained, low-budget film treatment, which is likely part of what drew Riggs to it.

Riggs says he'd love to expand his fan film into a full feature someday, and he's openly interested in collaborating with Cregger on a sequel in the Resident Evil universe if Cregger is up for it. No formal talks appear to be underway, but given how well Cregger's film performed, a follow-up seems increasingly likely — and Riggs has clearly put his name in the conversation.