Advertisement
28 Years Later: It’s been almost 25 years since director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland gave us the hit zombie movie 28 Days Later, which came out back in 2002. Now, after all this time, they’ve returned with a new movie called 28 Years Later, and it continues the story, picking up nearly 30 years after the deadly “rage virus” first escaped from a lab and started turning people into wild, violent monsters.
This new film shows us a world where some people have learned how to survive among the infected. Life is still dangerous, but it’s not completely hopeless anymore. People are figuring out how to live, even in the middle of all the chaos.
The movie stars Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O’Connell, and Ralph Fiennes, a strong and talented cast. 28 Years Later is also just the beginning of something bigger. It’s the first part of a brand-new trilogy, which means two more movies will follow, continuing the story.
Talking about the film, director Danny Boyle said that because so many years have passed since the original, they felt free to try bold and new things. On the red carpet, he told The Hollywood Reporter that they wanted this film to be just as fresh and exciting as the first one was when it came out. He also teased that the infected creatures have been “upgraded” in some scary ways, and filming those new versions was both fun and intense. “I think people will enjoy the upgrades,” he added with a smile.
Actress Jodie Comer said she didn’t expect to be so emotionally affected by a zombie movie. While there’s definitely horror and tension, what stood out to her was how touching and deep the story felt. She explained that the script had a lot of humour and warmth in it, and at the heart of it was a powerful relationship between a mother and her son, something very personal, and not something you usually see in horror films.
To look back, the original 28 Days Later followed a regular guy named Jim (played by Cillian Murphy), who woke up in a hospital and found the entire city of London empty, taken over by the infected. At first, fans thought Jim might return in the new movie, but it’s now been confirmed that he won’t be in 28 Years Later, at least not for now.
Want to know what’s next for this new chapter? Keep reading, there’s a lot more to come from this revived and reimagined zombie universe.
28 Years Later release date
After waiting for many years to hear what’s next in the 28 Days Later series, fans finally have something to look forward to, the new movie 28 Years Later is officially coming out on 20th June 2025.
And that’s not all. This movie is just the beginning of a brand-new trilogy. That means there will be three movies in total, continuing the story. The second movie in this trilogy has already been filmed right after the first one, they were shot back-to-back to keep the momentum going.
The second film is titled 28 Years Later Part II: The Bone Temple and is being directed by Nia DaCosta (known for Candyman and The Marvels). This follow-up is set to release on 16th January 2026, just a few months after the first.
So, after a long wait, fans of the franchise finally have not one, but two zombie thrillers to count down to, with a third likely to come soon after. The rage virus story is far from over.
28 Years Later cast details
The announced cast of the film are:
- Jodie Comer as Isla
- Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Jamie
- Ralph Fiennes as Dr. Ian Kelson
- Alfie Williams as TBC
- Erin Kellyman plays Jimmy Ink
- Edvin Ryding plays E Sundqvist
- Chi Lewis-Parry as TBC
- Jack O’Connell as TBC
- Angus Neill plays Emaciated Infected
Behind the scenes of 28 Years Later, the original creative team is back: Alex Garland is writing the script again, and Danny Boyle has returned as the director, just like they did for the original 28 Days Later movie.
Many fans had hoped that Cillian Murphy, who played Jim in the first film, would come back for this sequel. There were even rumours that he would be part of the cast, especially since he’s officially working on the film as an executive producer (someone who helps shape the project but isn’t always on screen).
After the trailer came out, fans got excited because they thought they saw Jim in one of the scenes and believed he might now be infected with the rage virus. But that theory was cleared up, Jim is not infected, and more importantly, Cillian Murphy does not appear in this movie at all.
However, that doesn’t mean he’s completely out of the picture. Producer Andrew Macdonald told Empire magazine that Murphy really wanted to be involved and that they wanted him, too. He explained that although Murphy isn’t in 28 Years Later, there’s hope that he might return in one of the other films in the trilogy.
Cillian Murphy himself has said he would love to return. While doing interviews for Oppenheimer, he was asked about a possible sequel to 28 Days Later and said, “I’d be there in a flash.” He also added that he loved working with Boyle and Garland and would definitely want to collaborate with them again.
So, while he’s not acting in the first movie of the new trilogy, fans still have a good reason to hope Jim could make a comeback in the future.
28 Years Later plot details
It has been nearly 30 years since a dangerous virus escaped from a science lab. This virus didn’t just make people sick, it made them wild, violent, and full of rage, like zombies. Because of this, the country is still under a very strict quarantine, meaning people are locked off from most places and can’t move around freely.
Even after all these years, some people have found ways to survive. One small group of survivors lives on an island, which is only connected to the rest of the land by one narrow path, a bridge that is very well protected so that the infected can’t cross.
One day, a member of this group leaves the island to go on a mission into the mainland, a place full of danger and unknown things. What he finds there is both amazing and terrifying. Not only have the infected changed and become even stranger over time, but some of the human survivors have also changed in dark ways. So it’s not just zombies that are scary anymore; some people might be just as dangerous.
Actor Ralph Fiennes, who is in the film, explained a little more about the story in an interview. He said that the movie takes place in a Britain that is still deep in this zombie outbreak. Only a few small groups of people are still uninfected, trying their best to stay alive.
At the heart of the story is a young boy who wants to help his sick mother. She is dying, and he believes that maybe someone out there, a doctor, could save her. So, he sets out on a journey through the wild, beautiful countryside of northern England, full of forests, hills, and old buildings.
But the journey isn’t safe. The infected could be hiding anywhere, in the trees, behind ruins, in the shadows. Still, the boy does find a doctor. At first, the doctor seems strange or maybe even dangerous, but as the story goes on, it turns out that he is actually kind and wants to help.