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Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil Movie Set in Raccoon City, Production Photos Reveal, With Hints to Place in the Timeline

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Snowy set photos have revealed the setting of Zach Cregger’s upcoming Resident Evil movie — and yes, we’re headed back to the series’ iconic Raccoon City.

Images posted on social media by ROEnetwork, below, show filming underway in Prague, with areas of the city covered in artificial snow and littered with Raccoon City props.

Burnt out cars sit outside a street corner diner, while a snow-covered vehicle labelled as belonging to the “Martin County” sheriff lays parked under a bridge. Most intriguingly, a city map can be seen pasted up at a bus shelter, depicting Raccoon City as a sprawling metropolis.

There’s a lot to talk about here, but it’s worth stating the obvious first of all: Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil project is clearly set prior to October 1998 and the events depicted in Resident Evil 3, which ends in the city being destroyed by missile strike.

Raccoon City is now a smoking ruin (as seen in the trailer for the upcoming Resident Evil Requiem), but this movie will take place before. How long before, though, is the question. For context, the original Resident Evil game (and Resident Evil 0) is set in July 1998, with spin-off Resident Evil Outbreak set in September of that year. Resident Evil 2 is set on September 29th and 30th, 1998, while the ending of Resident Evil 3 is set just a day later, on October 1.

The wintry setting seen in set photos (and the fact that Raccoon City is not a smoking pile of rubble) suggests a story set in the spring of 1998 at the latest — months prior to the franchise’s heroes Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine turning up on the scene, and well before Leon S. Kennedy’s fated first day as a cop.

However, this all fits with what we know of Zach Cregger’s plans for the upcoming Resident Evil movie reboot: that it will be set in the same world as Capcom’s video games, while not retelling any of their stories. Chris, Jill, Leon and their friends are not expected to appear, unlike in other past Resident Evil film attempts, although the events of the video games will not be contradicted.

Fans have pointed to the photos’ wintry setting and linked it to a prior plot leak that mentioned an organ courier travelling to Raccoon City hospital who stumbles into a “full-blown outbreak” after an encounter on a “snowy mountain road.” Cregger is expected to be reteaming with Weapons actor Austin Abrams for the film’s lead role — expected by fans to be that organ courier.

Cregger’s movie is slated for release on September 18, 2026. Before that, we’ll be back in the ruins of Raccoon City in Resident Evil Requiem, due to launch on February 27.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social