- A new 28 Years Later trailer has landed
- Director Danny Boyle and star Cillian Murphy return for long-awaited sequel
- Identity of mystery ‘Cillian Murphy’ zombie revealed
28 Years Later is finally a go, with the original movie’s director Danny Boyle, star Cillian Murphy and writer Alex Garland all set to return to this bloodthirsty dystopian world.
The duo’s harrowing first movie 28 Days Later was released in 2002 and introduced us to a version of Britain ravaged by a virus that sends its victims into a state of constant violent rage.
It doesn’t take long for society to collapse, with Murphy’s unsuspecting survivor Jim learning this the hard way after waking up from a coma to find a very different world.
Read more: 28 Years Later reportedly shot on an iPhone
Boyle’s film was a critical and audience hit, throwing fuel on the long-standing fast-zombies-versus-slow-zombies debate and spawning a 2007 sequel, 28 Weeks Later. While Murphy, Boyle and Garland decided to sit it out, this Robert Carlyle and Rose Byrne-fronted follow-up has since developed a cult following.
However, a third movie has been long-rumoured – and 28 Weeks Later was officially given the green light in January 2024. What else do we know about it? Read on for all the details we have so far…
Is there a trailer for 28 Years Later?
Yes, the latest 28 Years Later trailer dropped on 17 April 2025. In it, we get a better look at how England has endured under three decades of a zombie apocalypse.
Spoilers: the answer is ‘not too well’.
Before this, the first official 28 Years Later trailer was released on 10 December.
Watch it below:
Set to an eerie spoken-word song, the tension builds while snippets of chaos ramp up inter-cut with shots of survivors played by the film’s starry cast.
Read more: What is the audio in the 28 Years Later trailer?
28 Days Later hero Jim – played by Murphy – is curiously absent… or is he? Eagle-eyed viewers are convinced they’ve spotted the star in skeletal form in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment.
Can you find it? Sadly, it didn’t take long for this rumor to be debunked. According to The Guardian, that skeletal figure is actually an art dealer-turned-actor named Angus Neill. Apparently Boyle promised him a role in the movie – and this is it.
“Danny told me he’d always had me in mind for the role. So we met up, hit it off, and I agreed to take part,” Neill explained. “On set he has an extraordinary ability to hypnotize you, and working with him on the film was a very, very intense experience.”
Before this arrived, a cryptic teaser was released online but it didn’t reveal much. Short snippets of an island were intercut with what looked like a scarecrow. In between were ominous biohazard-like symbols.
Watch it below:
— 28 Years Later Movie (@28YearsLaterMov) December 7, 2024
It didn’t take long for fans to decipher the teaser’s beep sounds. They were revealed to be morse code, spelling out the word “Tuesday”. This has led many to believe that a full trailer may make its way online on Tuesday 10 December 2024.
According to reports, a paparazzi snap revealed that portions of 28 Years Later have been filmed on an iPhone. It’s unclear whether this method was used for the film’s entire shoot.
When is 28 Years Later released?
28 Years Later will invade American cinemas on 20 June 2025, 23 years after Boyle’s original hit screens. The movie will receive the same release date in the United Kingdom.
The first teaser poster for the movie was released in early December 2024. It featured the ominous tagline: “Time didn’t heal anything.”
The movie will be directed by Boyle based on a new script that he co-wrote with Garland. A second film in a new trilogy is also in the works and set to be directed by Nia DaCosta, the same filmmaker behind 2021’s Candyman remake.
The film shot back-to-back with Boyle’s sequel and has been given the title 28 Years Later Part II: The Bone Temple.
Who is starring in the sequel?
Murphy is set to reprise his role as Jim, the bike courier-turned-zombie-apocalypse survivor that we met in Boyle’s original movie. He’ll be joined by Aaron Taylor-Johnson as a character named Jamie.
Read more: Who is in the cast for 28 Years Later?
Together, they’ll be joined by a small ensemble cast although we don’t currently know too much about their characters or how they’ll fit into the overall plot. Additional stars will include Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Erin Kellyman and Edvin Ryding.
Mayor of Kingstown star Emma Laird will also appear in the movie. Speaking to Collider, she explained that fans won’t be too pleased to see her.
“I come in at the end of Danny’s film, so I didn’t get to work with him that much,” said the star, avoiding specifics. “You’re introduced to me. What I will say is I’m not a likable character, and it’s absolute insanity.”
What is the plot?
An official plot synopsis for 28 Years Later was released with its first official trailer.
It reads: “It’s been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected.
“One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily-defended causeway. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.”
Read more: Three of the biggest 28 Years Later plot theories
Ominous. One of its stars has also shed some light on the project’s plot during a recent interview.
Speaking to IndieWire, Fiennes explained: “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 centres 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.”
Until we know more, this is all the information we have to go on.
