After 28 Days Later, Danny Boyle and Cillian Murphy Teamed Up For a Highly Underrated Psychological Thriller

Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later, which comes as a sequel to the Cillian Murphy-led 2002 hit horror 28 Days Later, might be doing great in the box office right now, but the actor’s absence in the story’s continuation felt heavier than it was supposed to.

Released worldwide on June 20, 28 Years Later has so far grossed around $70 million against its budget of $60 million, recounting the events that have nothing to do with Murphy’s Jim.

However, 28 Days Later’s fans might get interested in another Murphy / Boyle collaboration released back in 2007, but frequently overlooked due to the former’s much bigger popularity.

‘Sunshine’ Is an Unfairly Underrated Sci-fi Thriller With a Star-Studded Cast

• On Rotten Tomatoes, Sunshine has scores of 77% and 73% from critics and audiences
• On IMDb, the movie is rated 7.2/10

Released five years after 28 Days Later, Sunshine mostly went under radar with viewers, despite receiving numerous accolades from critics for its direction and performances.

Starring Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Rose Byrne, Mark Strong, Benedict Wong and Michelle Yeoh, the movie is set in the year of 2057 and follows a crew of eight men and women who travel to space in an attempt to save the Sun from dying and Earth from freezing.

However, just like it happens in quite many similar sci-fi thrillers, the crew faces a big danger after a grave accident and has to find ways to survive before actually helping the entire humanity.

Sunshine was a critical darling, but failed hard in the box office, grossing around $35 million against the initial budget of $40 million.

Cillian Murphy to Reprise His Role in ’28 Years Later’ Sequel

Even though many were frustrated upon realising that the actor remained behind the camera for the movie, this won’t last long — at least until 28 Years Later’s sequel now titled 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple will be released sometime in the future.

This has been recently addressed by Boyle himself who confirmed Murphy’s return to the story as Jim.

“I've seen a rough cut of Nia DaCosta's film, 'The Bone Temple,' and he is introduced beautifully at the end of that film. And that obviously leads you, in the way that you'll probably realize that Jimmy is going to be a huge part of the second movie, having been introduced in the coda of the first movie. Likewise, Cillian will be a huge part of the third movie”, the director revealed in an interview with ScreenRant.

28 Years Later is currently playing in theatres.