28 Years Later writer Alex Garland says the film doesn’t conflict with 28 Weeks Later, even though Danny Boyle isn’t concerned about canon
28 Days Later director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland have finally reunited to make a sequel to their zombie (or, if you prefer, infected people) movie classic. As we reporter earlier this year, this sequel is set up at Sony, is going to be called 28 Years Later – and it’s meant to launch a whole trilogy of 28 Days Later sequels. The theatrical release date is June 20th, 2025… and when the film reaches the screen, Garland has said that fans will find that 28 Years Later does not conflict with the previous sequel 28 Weeks Later, even if canon isn’t something Boyle pays much attention to.
The cast of 28 Years Later includes Jodie Comer (The Bikeriders), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (The Fall Guy), Ralph Fiennes (Conclave), and Erin Kellyman (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier). In the original film, Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) played bicycle courier Jim, who wakes up from a coma to find himself in an apocalyptic England that’s overrun by people who have been infected by a rage virus. Boyle and Garland went through several endings for 28 Days Later before landing on the one movie-goers saw in theatres – and that ending was the only one where Jim survived. So he’s still out there, ready to live through another rage virus nightmare 28 years later. He may not be in the first 28 Years Later, but there’s hope that he will show up “in a surprising way” at some point in the trilogy.
As The Hollywood Reporter previously noted, “The 2002 film grossed $82.7 million globally and spawned a sequel, 2007’s 28 Weeks Later, though Boyle and Garland were only nominally involved as executive producers.” Speaking with Empire, Garland said (with thanks to Screen Rant for sharing the quote), “[28 Years Later is] not in conflict [with 28 Weeks Later, but] canon [is] not a very Danny Boyle word.” Boyle added, “It’s not mapped out like a scientific formula.“
As for what inspired the new film, Garland said, “Covid was not in my mind because it was too recent and too present, but Brexit was. [Especially how the rest of the world began to view the UK.] A sense of the globe just sort of shifting its position. Turning their backs, not really looking in this direction. Not really giving a shit [about the UK].” Producer Andrew Macdonald said, “Nothing is allowed into Britain and nothing is allowed out. Britain has paused.“
When 28 Years Later came up during an interview with IndieWire, Fiennes decided to go ahead and tell us all about it: “Britain is 28 years into this terrible plague of infected people who are violent, rabid humans with a few pockets of uninfected communities. And it centers on a young boy who wants to find a doctor to help his dying mother. He leads his mother through this beautiful northern English terrain. But of course, around them hiding in forests and hills and woods are the infected. But he finds a doctor who is a man we might think is going to be weird and odd, but actually is a force for good.“
Thanks to their deal with Sony, each of these new films will be receiving a theatrical release and will have budgets in the $60 million range. 28 Years Later has a budget of $75 million.
Boyle and Garland are producing 28 Years Later with Bernie Bellew, original producer Macdonald, and Peter Rice, who was the head of Fox Searchlight Pictures when that company backed 28 Days Later. Murphy is executive producing.
Garland also wrote the screenplay for the sequel that will come after 28 Years Later. Of the two 28 Years Later projects currently in the works, Boyle directed the first one, then passed the helm over to Candyman and The Marvels director Nia DaCosta for the sequel, titled 28 Years Later Part II: The Bone Temple. The second film has already wrapped production. Boyle might circle back to direct 28 Years Later Part III, but that one won’t get made until the filmmakers see how audiences react to the first movie.
Are you looking forward to 28 Years Later, and are you glad to hear that it doesn’t conflict with 28 Weeks Later? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
