Movies

Everything You Need to Know about 28 Days Later Sequel

Everything You Need to Know about 28 Days Later Sequel
Image credit: Searchlight Pictures

Danny Boyle teams up with Alex Garland to make a sequel of the 2000’s hit.

Summary:

  • 28 Days Later, a famous zombie thriller, released in 2002, will be continued with a 28 Years Later sequel, being developed by Danny Boyle and Alex Garland.
  • The original movie became a big sensation and paved the way not only for its directors and leading star Cillian Murphy, but also for other zombie movies.

Back in 2002, 28 Days Later became a revolutionary zombie thriller, which set the new 2000s fashion, resulting in a great number of zombie movies and TV shows.

Its creators, Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire) as the director and Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Men) as the screenwriter, are already in the progress of making a sequel, 28 Years Later, with a budget in the range of $75 million.

28 Days Later featured Cillian Murphy, this year’s biggest star with his brilliant Oppenheimer performance, in the role of Jim, who recovers from a month-long coma to realize that England is now a desolate land as people got infected with a virus turning them into relentless zombies.

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The film already had a related sequel 28 Weeks Later, released in 2007, when Boyle and Garland were only involved as executive producers.

The original movie has become a booster both for Boyle’s career, who started to get well-financed for his following projects, and for Cillian Murphy, who gained worldwide popularity and roles in the famous directors’ projects, such as Christopher Nolan.

Will 28 Years Later Be a Soft Reboot?

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The new sequel will presumably take place after a time-jump and continue exploring the invented post-apocalyptic future after the outbreak of the rage virus and explore its impact on humanity, which is quite relevant in our post-pandemic society.

“After almost 3 decades either the virus has won or it’s extinct. Either the virus has won or it’s extinct. This will probably be more of a soft reboot than a sequel with a whole new infection kicking off,” fairly suggests user @BillzB89 in a recent Reddit discussion.

As for Cillian Murphy’s participation in 28 Years Later, he definitely plans to join the project as a producer, but it’s still unclear whether he returns as Jim or not. The actor recently revealed that he’s open to continue playing Jim, who survived in the first movie.

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Fans actually supported not only the idea of Murphy’s return, but the sequel as a whole, which is rare when it comes to revival of the classic movies.

“Part of me wishes it would release in 2030 to actually be 28 years later, but I don’t want to wait 6 years if I don’t have to,” Redditor @SpacemanJB88 said, expressing fans’ common thoughts.

While the planned Boyle and Garland’s zombie thriller hasn’t even landed a studio and Murphy finishes his promotion of Oppenheimer, you can rewatch 28 Days Later, the first remarkable zombie hit of the 2000s, on Prime Video.

Source: Variety