The Walking Dead franchise has produced a lot of star-power over the years. From catapulting Andrew Lincoln to further levels of superstardom beyond what he had already achieved to kickstarting Jon Bernthal's gripping acting career, the saga has either given the industry a lot o high-profile performers over the years (or spotlighted existing talent on a grander stage).
One actor, who has gone from strength-to-strength since the 2010s had a rather significant role on The Walking Dead midway through its run, acting as a secondary villain in the fifth and sixth seasons. Now, he unexpectedly returns to the zombie genre all these years later, leading what will undoubtedly be one of the biggest horror movies of the year.
Austin Abrams returns to the zombie genre in Resident Evil reboot
Austin Abrams has quickly become of the fastest-rising stars in Hollywood, appearing in the likes of Euphoria, Do Revenge, Chemical Hearts, and Weapons over the course of the past few years. He's now set to play the sole leading role in Zach Cregger's upcoming Resident Evil reboot, which will see his character Bryan attempt to survive a night in Raccoon City as it becomes overrun by undead nightmares. Abrams knows all about battling zombies because, a decade ago, he had a pretty major recurring role on AMC's The Walking Dead.
If you don't remember, that's perfectly okay; Abrams has become such a household name over the past few years that you might be forgiven for not realizing that he made an impression on fans of the TWD Universe long before that as the infamous Ron Anderson.
Ron was the son of Jessie Anderson and the brother of Sam. The family lived in Alexandria before Rick Grimes and his group of survivors joined the community. Rick would eventually fall in love with Jessie and save her from her abusive husband Pete by killing him when everyone felt they had reached the point of no return with him. However, despite being one of Pete's victims, Ron wouldn't let people talk ill of his father and he blamed Rick and his whole family for his death. This ultimately led to Ron becoming an antagonist, particularly for Rick's son Carl to deal with.
In the end, Ron's family was eaten by walkers when Sam had a panic attack and Jessie tried to help him. Ron once again blamed Rick for his and attempted to shoot him in the midst of a herd of walkers, only for Michonne to stab him through the chest - killing him then and there before the walkers devoured his body. This would become one of the most infamous scenes in the whole series as Ron would unintentionally shoot Carl right in the eye in a knee-jerk moment after Michonne stabbed him.
Although that was the end for Ron, it was only the beginning for Abrams' career as the star would spend the second half of the 2010s cultivating a reputation as a leading man in Hollywood. He would return to TV with major roles in Euphoria and This Is Us before appearing in films such as Chemical Hearts, Wolfs, Do Revenge, and Weapons. That brought him right back around to zombies with Resident Evil.
A reboot of the legendary horror film series (which is also based on the critically-acclaimed video game series), Resident Evil is a standalone tale revolving around Bryan, a medical courier given a high-paying assignment out of town before he finishes his shift for the evening. However, the journey leads him to Raccoon City, which is infested with mutated, zombie-like creatures that have already ravaged everything in sight. There, he must learn to survive, finding a way out of what appears to be the starting point of whatever happened to those creatures.
The film is set during the events of the Resident Evil 2 video game and it looks to take a new, haunting, edge-of-seat approach to the legendary saga. And Abrams, who previously worked with Cregger on Weapons, will be front and center of this focused, gripping tale of survival. The trailer is edge-of-seat enough, so if you're looking forward to this one, you're undoubtedly going to be in for an intense watch.
It's incredible to see how Abrams has grown as an actor over the course of his career, and it's going to be very interesting seeing him battle undead creatures all over again in Resident Evil. Let's just hope that Bryan fares better than Ron!
Resident Evil arrives in movie theaters on September 18, 2026.
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