The following story contains spoilers for 28 Years Later.
IT’S A GOOD time to be a fan of horror movies, because one of the best director/writer collaborations of the last 25 years just gave us a stone cold banger. More than two decades after director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland joined forces to give us the low-fi survival horror epic 28 Days Later, they’ve returned for 28 Years Later, and it rocks. (28 Weeks Later came out in 2007 and is pretty solid, but neither Boyle nor Garland were involved on a writing or directing level.)
The film follows a young boy named Spike (Alfie Williams) who was born into a world where his home in the U.K. has always been a quarantined post-apocalyptic hellscape. We see him spend time with both his flawed father, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his loving-but-ailing mother, Isla (Jodie Comer), making for two halves of a movie that comes together in a surprising but fantastic whole.
A couple other ingredients are at play as well, including a mad doctor with a heart of gold played by Ralph Fiennes. It’s a lot of movie, and some watching may be surprised when things seem like they’re wrapping up, and then we meet a platinum-haired, chain-wearing cult leader played by Sinners villain Jack O’Connell. What is happening here in the last 90 seconds of the movie?
Well, what’s happening is that 28 Years Later isn’t just one single new movie, but the start of a new, ambitious project from Boyle and Garland that is going to be at least two movies, and possibly even more.
Will there be a sequel to 28 Years Later?
As you may have guessed from the ending, yes, there will be a sequel to 28 Years Later. Tentatively called 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (though we haven’t gotten official word from Sony Pictures on that just yet), the movie was filmed back-to-back with the first 28 Years Later, and is expected to release in January. The Bone Temple (if that title doesn’t change) will continue the events of 28 Years Later.
One major change, though—28 Years Later: The Bone Temple will be directed by Nia DaCosta (Candyman, The Marvels) and not Danny Boyle. Alex Garland once is writing the script.
The cast will include just about everyone you would expect: Alfie Williams, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Jack O’Connell will all reprise their roles. Emma Laird (Mayor of Kingstown) will also appear as a member of Jimmy’s cult; She was in 28 Years Later, but you may not have noticed. We don’t know if Ralph Fiennes will return as Dr. Kelson, but that would be something nice to wish for, wouldn’t it? But it would also be very poetic if we never saw him again.
One major addition to the 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple cast: Cillian Murphy. The Oscar-winning Oppenheimer star will reprise his role as Jim from 28 Days Later in the sequel.
“He has a significant role to play in the second film,” Boyle said in a recent interview. “And a massive role to play in the third film. And we’re looking to finance the third film.”
Not only will there be a sequel to 28 Years Later, but Danny Boyle and Alex Garland have plans for a full trilogy
That’s right—there are plans not only for one sequel to 28 Years Later, but a second, making this entire endeavor a super ambitious, genre-bending horror-thriller trilogy.
The third film, however, will likely depend on the success of the first. “We’re still trying to get the money for the third,” Boyle told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview, before clarifying his intent to direct the third film himself. “Absolutely. That’s the idea. That’s the plan. Plans. Ha! What do you do to make God laugh? Tell him your plans. But, but yes, that’s the plan.“
Not super convincing! But if 28 Years Later is a success—and we hope it is—it sounds like that’s the next step.
It helps, though, that Boyle and Garland can promise a massive star for the third film. “[Nia DaCosta gets a bit of Cillian at the end [of the second film],” Boyle said in an interview with Business Insider. “All I can say is you have to wait for Cillian, but hopefully he will help us get the third film financed.”
“If we get the money, Cillian will obviously be a dominant factor in the third part of the film,” Boyle said in another interview.
We don’t want to do this too often, because it kind of seems like bad form, but let’s pray to the box office gods for 28 Years Later to be a success. Because this is one trilogy we really need to see all the way through.
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Evan is the culture editor for Men’s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn’t.
