Spoilers for 28 Years Later follow.
You’re not going to have to wait almost 20 years for another sequel. Thank the lord, and his name is Cillian Murphy! As executive producer on the franchise, the Oscar winner’s producer credit carries a heavy weight, and Danny Boyle and Alex Garland are using it to leverage to get their movies made. It’s called show business for a reason. After 28 Years Later infected movie theaters over the weekend, and especially after that cliff hanger, it’s hard to wait to find out what happens to Spike now that he’s on his own. So, let’s learn about the next phase of the 28 Days franchise now that Boyle has passed on the director’s chair to a new person who’s going to handle the cult dynamics in the zombie world in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.
Wait, so Danny Boyle didn’t direct this one?
Nope! Both 28 Years Later and The Bone Temple were shot back to back, so in order to make both movies happen so quickly, Boyle passed the torch to Candyman and The Marvels director Nia DaCosta. “[Alex Garland] wrote the first script and the second script very closely together,” Boyle explained to IndieWire. “And we knew we had to shoot them back-to-back for financial reasons and actor reasons and all those sorts of things that made a little sense to do it back-to-back.”
Is Cillian Murphy coming back?
Sounds like Jim is back. Boyle explained how Bone Temple and 28 Years Later both lead up to Murphy’s re-introduction to the franchise, after Spike meets Jimmy and his cult at the end of the film. “Much like the first film, I think [we] probably [had some] regrets about threatening Europe with it, in terms of story development, that meant it could only go one way,” Boyle told Indiewire. “So, the idea was to retrench, and that allowed us to make weirdly a much bigger film, more mythic. And it spread across three films, and two of which we’ve shot, all of which connect characters ultimately, which is how Cillian eventually appears.” Murphy was spotted running away from zombies last September, so there’s a good chance Jim’s back for more in Bone Temple.
However, it might not be a full character arc: “[DaCosta] gets a bit of Cillian at the end,” Boyle teased to Business Insider. “All I can say is you have to wait for Cillian, but hopefully he will help us get the third film financed.” Basically, Jim is behind a paywall. Boo!
Has a third film been confirmed?
Not yet, but Boyle and Garland are both hoping to work on the third film once Sony writes them a check.
When’s the movie coming out?
Murphy’s return comes to the big screen on January 16, 2026.
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Cillian Murphy incoming!
