After 14 years, director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland are finally reuniting for a new project. Their latest collaboration won’t end with just one film, either, as the duo are returning to the world of 28 Days Later with a trilogy of follow-ups that have found a home at Sony Pictures. The first sequel, appropriately titled 28 Years Later, is already taking shape. Not much is known about it yet, but 28 Days star Cillian Murphy is executive producing and potentially starring, which implies it will be a relatively straightforward follow-up to 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later.
Production is also ramping up for the new trilogy’s second film. It will be helmed by Candyman and The Marvels director Nia DaCosta; per Deadline, Sony wants to film the installments back-to-back. With Garland set to write all three screenplays, a story may already be in place. The details will likely be a mystery for a while, but a tentative title for 28 Years Later 2 may have given fans a big update.
We’ve come a long way from Cillian Murphy’s terrible trip to the hospital.
Columbia Pictures has reportedly registered DaCosta’s upcoming film under the official title 28 Years Later Part II: The Bone Temple. That doesn’t tell us much about the new trilogy, but it certainly implies that the films will introduce audiences to a very different world than the one they last saw.
28 Days Later was set during the early days of a zombie apocalypse, while its sequel, 28 Weeks Later, moved the calendar forward by just a few months. Both films focused on humanity’s efforts to fight and potentially thwart the disease turning people into undead monsters, but 28 Years Later will likely take place in a world that lost that battle. That, plus a title with some serious dark fantasy and airbrushed van vibes, could signal a pivot into the post-apocalyptic genre.
The sequels may resemble films like I Am Legend or Terminator: Salvation, depicting a new struggle for humanity as it resists extinction. It would be a natural progression for a series jumping decades into the future, and an intriguing next step for genre talents like Boyle and Garland. Unless a bone temple is more of a metaphor, prepare for this bleak franchise to get even grimmer.
