Austin Abrams' Resident Evil Reboot Gets Official Verdict From Former Walking Dead Co-Star

EXCLUSIVE: Austin Abrams continues to have a big fan in one of his Walking Dead co-stars’ Resident Evil review.

Abrams leads Zach Cregger’s reboot of the film branch of the hit Capcom franchise as Bryan, a medical courier who takes a job transporting a mysterious package to Raccoon City General Hospital, only to find himself in a fight for survival as he discovers the town decimated and overrun by a zombie virus. Also starring Paul Walter Hauser, Kali Reis and Zach Cherry, Resident Evil instantly became a record-breaking sensation.

Now, in an interview with ScreenRant‘s Grant Hermanns for his Biohazard live-action short film, Chandler Riggs was asked his thoughts on the new Resident Evil movie. Riggs, who previously shared the screen with Abrams during his two-season recurring tenure on The Walking Dead, raved that he “really loved” the new movie reboot and described it as “the coolest thing ever” seeing his former co-star on the big screen “after working with him 10 years ago now, or more than that.”

Riggs also shared plenty of praise for Cregger’s work on the Resident Evil reboot, describing the filmmaker as being “a big inspiration” for him and his team on their Biohazard short. In particular, Riggs cited Weapons as a film they looked to for the film’s visual style, having “loved how the cameras slowly explored the world to build that tension” of his 2025 horror-thriller hit:

Chandler Riggs: So, we try to do that in Biohazard, in some of our first-person shots of exploring the world in these cool and slow ways. But yeah, I loved Resident Evil. He did a really, really great job. I think there’s a lot of awesome stuff that he did with it, and it was a great movie. He’s a fantastic director and had an awesome team for that.

Chandler Riggs: So, we try to do that in Biohazard, in some of our first-person shots of exploring the world in these cool and slow ways. But yeah, I loved Resident Evil. He did a really, really great job. I think there’s a lot of awesome stuff that he did with it, and it was a great movie. He’s a fantastic director and had an awesome team for that.

Though he had already been working steadily prior to joining the series, with everything from the Ryan Gosling-led Gangster Squad to Showtime’s Shameless, AMC’s The Walking Dead was notably one of Abrams’ first major roles in any project. Not only did it mark the first time that he starred in a series for multiple seasons, he also served as a minor antagonist for Riggs’ Carl and Andrew Lincoln’s Rick, even trying to kill the former during the breach of the Alexandria Safe-Zone, only to instead incidentally lead to Carl’s right eye being shot out.

In the wake of his run on The Walking Dead, and before his leading turn in the new Resident Evil reboot, Abrams’ star profile steadily began to rise on both the big and small screens. From HBO’s Euphoria remake to André Øvredal’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark adaptation and Jon Watts’ Wolfs, the star has explored a wide variety of genres. Notably, he was also the only of the original stars cast for Cregger’s Weapons to carry over after the film’s strike delays caused the filmmaker to recast the project.

Riggs certainly isn’t the only one who found themselves loving Abrams and Cregger’s Resident Evil reboot, either. While there was some division amongst game fans for its lack of direct adaptation of titles, it became the best-reviewed video game adaptation of all-time, and the highest-rated of both Abrams and Cregger’s titles on Rotten Tomatoes with its 96% “Certified Fresh” approval rating. Moreover, the film just recently broke the Resident Evil franchise’s box office record for highest-grossing installment with its $364 million haul.

Rearrange the movies into the correct US release order.

                    <a href="/register/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sign in</a> to claim your place
                    on the leaderboard!



                    <a href="/register/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sign in</a> to claim your place
                    on the leaderboard!

With Riggs now sharing his own glowing review for the new Resident Evil film, the curiosity now turns to whether Abrams or Cregger will share their own reviews of the Biohazard short in the near future. The former has remained busy in the press circuits for both the survival horror reboot and his new survival thriller Whalefall, while the impending home media release for the former could see one or both of them asked about Riggs’ short.

With Riggs also expressing his hopes to work with Cregger on something in the future, be it a Resident Evil sequel or something else, it will further be interesting to see if Cregger facilitates a reunion between the Walking Dead alums.

Resident Evil

A medical courier heads to Raccoon City General Hospital for what should be an ordinary delivery. His mission turns dangerous when an undead outbreak erupts and traps him in a terrifying night of chaos.