Danny Boyle Confirms Cillian Murphy’s Return in ‘28 Years Later’ Sequel, but There’s a Catch

Murphy’s possible comeback to his role in the franchise’s next movie might now be the first thing to consider before the production starts — here’s why.
Fans of Cillian Murphy’s hit 2002 horror 28 Days Later might be happy to wait another year to see the actor in the franchise’s future film, but there’s now an even bigger role Murphy has to take on in the entire production process.
The actor has been long rumoured to join the cast of Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later which comes as some sort of a sequel to 28 Days Later; this was soon debunked, with creators claiming that Murphy is on board as one of the producers only.
However, an upcoming sequel to 28 Years Later now definitely counts on Murphy’s presence, and mostly not as one of the cast members.
Danny Boyle Hopes Cillian Murphy’s Casting in ‘The Bone Temple’ Helps Greenlight the Movie
Even though Murphy remained behind the camera for 28 Years Later, he will be featured in the movie’s sequel titled 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, potentially reprising his role from 28 Days Later.
Still, director Danny Boyle thinks Murphy’s producing impact on the movie is way bigger than just possible audience increase.
“All I can say is you have to wait for Cillian, but hopefully he will help us get the third film financed. Although each story [in the trilogy] completes itself, there’s a handover section to the next film as well. So it’s very ambitious. We haven’t got the money for the third one yet. It will depend on how the first one does, I guess. But hopefully if we do okay, they’ll give us the go-ahead for the money and for the third one. Everybody’s standing by for that, really. Including Cillian”, he revealed in interviews with Business Insider and IGN recently.
Apart from that, the director also admitted that his promise to bring Cillian Murphy back for the new trilogy was the reason why he was allowed to make 28 Years Later with an iPhone only.
“You promise them Cillian Murphy, that’s quite a deflection of any technical concerns. They soon forget. We nakedly used that to get our own way. What better promise could you make?”, he told Business Insider.
’28 Days Later’ Fans Are Excited to Learn More About Jim’s Fate
Things have been pretty unclear about Cillian Murphy’s character in the first movie’s ending, so its fans are ready to wait another couple of years to see the tiniest sneak peek into what happened to Jim.
“It's going to be interesting to see what Cillian's/Jim's situation is in this upcoming sequel. i'm not looking forward (IF this happens) to learning that Selena & Hanna died though. hopefully we'll learn they are alive and well”, Redditor AimeeM46 wrote in a thread.
“I wonder how Jim is still in Britain. After the plane spots them at the end of 28 Days Later did they just never actually get rescued, or did Jim come back during the events of 28 Weeks Later?” BoingBoingBooty chimed in.
28 Years Later is now scheduled for a release in theatres worldwide on June 20.