Nearly 20 years after the last sequel, “28 Weeks Later,” writer Alex Garland and Danny Boyle have returned for the belated third installment of their zombie/pandemic/rage virus horror thriller with “28 Years Later.” The premise is, essentially, that time hasn’t healed a thing.
While Garland and Boyle kicked around ideas for ages, Garland only landed on something fairly recently, presented it to Boyle, and off they went. But don’t expect the same.
“It was a wholly different approach,” Boyle told Empire recently. “It was about what that 28 years gives you.”
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Interestingly, the premise also centers on the fact that the rage virus remains contained to England, and the rest of the world remains unaffected. And don’t expect Cillian Murphy, at least not right away. He’s expected to appear in the sequel, “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” directed by Nia Costa, but this cast stars Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams and Ralph Fiennes.
“It’s a closed and necessarily very tight community,” Boyle said about the survivors in his movie. “There are very strict defense laws, obviously, to survive that long in what is effectively an ongoing hostile environment. They’ve created a successful community, as they see it.”
“This is very narratively ambitious. Danny and I understood that,” Garland, the screenwriter explained, “We tried to condense it, but its natural form felt like a trilogy.”
Here’s the official synopsis:
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Academy Award®-winning director Danny Boyle and Academy Award®-nominated writer Alex Garland reunite for 28 Years Later, a terrifying new story set in the world created by 28 Days Later. It’s been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily defended causeway. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.
“28 Years Later” arrives in theaters via Sony Pictures on June 20, 2025. Watch the new trailer below.
