Resident Evil Director Still Keen on His Batman Spin-Off Henchman

Ever wonder what Gotham City looks like from the bottom? Zach Cregger has, and he's not letting go of that idea. The Resident Evil director is still itching to make his Batman-adjacent movie, Henchman, and he recently explained why the concept keeps pulling him back.

Speaking to A Shot magazine, Cregger described his love for small, intimate stories. "I like small, intimate stories that are relatively simple," he said, comparing them to "an ant pushing a grain of sand." He added: "Something that is just, you can wrap your head around the problem that this character has, and I'm not dealing with these giant tectonic plates of politics and lore and all those things." That philosophy clearly applies to Henchman, which zooms in on one regular guy instead of the usual cape-and-cowl spectacle.

So what's Henchman actually about? Cregger has previously shared details with Men's Health. "It's a script called Henchman. It's about a normal guy," he said. "It's about a pharmacist who lives in Gotham City, and he gets accidentally sucked into this incredible power play between Batman and The Joker. And he finds himself a very integral part of something." In other words, it's a weird, grounded take on Gotham from the perspective of someone who's usually just collateral damage.

Cregger admitted he's not a die-hard Batman fanatic. "I'm not the world's biggest Batman guy at all, but I just liked this story. I liked this character. I liked what happened to him, so it was just fun," he explained. And that outsider's perspective is exactly what he finds so compelling. "We've seen so many Batman stories, but to see it from just a bystander who's on the edge of everything, I don't know, I'm so fascinated by that," he told A Shot.

Before you get too excited, though, Cregger has also cautioned that the project is "getting blown out of proportion online." He clarified: "It's not a Joker and Harley Quinn script" and that he's "not talked to James Gunn about it." So while the idea is alive in his mind, it's not officially moving forward at DC just yet.

It's easy to see why Cregger gravitates toward this kind of story. His Resident Evil movie takes place "on the periphery" of Resident Evil 2 and follows a medical courier through a terrible night in Raccoon City. That's another tale about an ordinary person caught in extraordinary chaos, so Henchman feels like a natural companion piece.

Meanwhile, DC's next theatrical outing is Clayface, hitting theaters this October 23. For now, we'll just have to keep hoping Cregger gets his chance to show us Gotham from the ground level. What do you think—would you watch a Batman story told from a henchman's point of view? Let us know in the comments!