It's hard to even think about the zombie genre without thinking about The Walking Dead. The AMC series brought the undead creatures to the small screen in a way that they have been dominating the silver screen for decades, firmly cementing itself as the definitive zombie TV series. And, to many people, it's the definitive zombie story full stop.
However, there was one glaring issue that fans had with the show that, although intentional, robbed them of an important part of the story: As it took place through Rick Grimes' eyes, you never got to see the world go to hell in the original series. While the TWD Universe got the chance to correct this in spinoff Fear The Walking Dead, which explored the origins of the outbreak, many still see that as a standout issue of The Walking Dead itself.
However, there is one upcoming zombie movie that this won't be an issue for.
The Resident Evil reboot will explore the terrifying origins of a zombie apocalypse
It goes without saying that Resident Evil is also a name that carries weight in the zombie genre and the film franchise is receiving a major reboot this year. The upcoming film, aptly just titled Resident Evil, will tell a smaller-scale, standalone story and it's diving all the way into the horror element, with the first trailer centering around the origins of the undead, mutant creatures rising.
The story focuses on Austin Abrams' character, a medical courier who finds himself fighting for his life when his routine delivery goes horribly wrong. Isolated in a snowy landscape, he is confronted by mutated creatures who begin to chase him into the city. When there, bodies of mutated people begin falling from the buildings, highlighting the chaos of that initial outbreak in gritty, visceral fashion.
Directed by Zach Cregger, the film is seemingly set around the same time as the Resident Evil 2 video game, showcasing the early days of the outbreak in Raccoon City. Needless to say, this will create an invasive, claustrophobic feel that will go a long way in truly highlighting how terrifying being stranded in a dead city when a zombie apocalypse commences is.
This once again raises the question of whether The Walking Dead should have explored this in more depth. It can always put forward the truth about it being Rick Grimes' story - and therefore it couldn't begin until he awoke from his coma to see that the world had fallen apart - but that doesn't change the fact that a look into the beginnings of the walker outbreak could have made for some very gripping television.
Again, the-powers-that-be were quick to resolve that by making the first ever TWD spinoff Fear The Walking Dead a prequel series, and it did reveal how Madison and the Clark family attempted to survive in the chaos of the city of Los Angeles falling apart upon the outbreak, but it's hard to argue with the fans who felt short-changed by omitting one of the most important parts of the whole zombies / apocalypse narrative.
The origins of a zombie apocalypse are always among the most frightening aspects of each respective zombie movie and / or TV show. It's not just because of the sights of the undead creatures themselves (that can be terrifying at any stage), it's the fear of the unknown and how each of these projects capitalize on an already-realistic fear and merge that with the terrifying element of the dead rising. We saw it all the way back with the original Night of the Living Dead in 1968 and we still see it in its modern day counterparts (like Resident Evil). That makes for an edge-of-seat experience.
Another major zombie series, The Last of Us, offered up the best of both worlds, with the first 20 minutes of its pilot episode showcasing the world breaking down before a major time-jump took us 20 years into the future in order to tell Joel and Ellie's primary storyline. Like The Walking Dead, it was also based on source material (in this case a major video game franchise) so it stayed true to that, but it was also able to offer up something for all zombie fans.
While it's completely understandable that The Walking Dead stayed true to Robert Kirkman's comic series, there has long-been a conversation how it would have been thrilling to see Rick Grimes navigate those early days of the zombie apocalypse. Would he have survived as long as he has if he was caught off-guard by the rise of the walkers in the same way that others were? Or was he always destined to lead those communities in Alexandria and beyond? We'll never know, but we do appreciate the franchise attempting to make up for that through the first three seasons of Fear, standalone anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead, and the flashback episodes of World Beyond and Daryl Dixon.
And if you do want frightful beginnings of a dystopian world, Resident Evil is undoubtedly going to be for you. Just make sure you hide behind your cushions because this one is going to be intense!
Resident Evil arrives in movie theaters on September 18, 2026. The next chapter of the Walking Dead franchise, Dead City season 3, premieres on AMC and AMC+ on July 26, 2026.
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