Danny Boyle confirms the return of Cillian Murphy for sequelae of '28 and Aart '

This June we will have the cinemas of the post apocalyptic world of the director's franchise Danny Boyle and the scriptwriter Alex Garlandwith the premiere of a new installment, 28 Years Laterthe expected sequel to 28 Days Later y 28 Weeks Later.

One of the great doubts that the audience has had since the project was announced, is The possible return of Cillian Murphy.

The recent Oscar winner for best actor for Oppenheimerhe starred in the original 2002 delivery, playing Jim, who when he woke up from a comma after a bicycle accident, discovers that England is now a desolate and post -apocalyptic collapse, thanks to a virus that made its victims furious murderers.

In the first teaser launched in December of the one entitled in our market, Extermination: Evolutionwe saw a zombie character with much similar to Murphy. By believing that it was him, one of the producers, Andrew Macdonald, revealed that the actor is not repeating his role as Jim in 28 Years LaterAt the same time, it made it clear that it is not ruled out that I return for some or the two subsequent deliveries. Because if you are not aware, we tell you that 28 Years Later It is the first installment of a new trilogy that will follow up on the events of the first two films released in the early 2000s.

To Macdonald's statements now are added by Boyle. The director revealed to Ign the plans with respect to Murphy.

“Well, there are three films, a trilogy of films with connected characters,” he says, and adds that Spike, the 12 -year -old boy played by Alfie Williams in 28 years later, is essential in the new story. “It will be present throughout the film. We roll the first two consecutively, for logistics reasons, of availability of actors and also for history. They are practically continuous.”

The second installment of this trilogy was already filmed. Boyle directs 28 Years Laterwhile Nia dacosta (Candyman, The Marvels) is the director of the second one that is entitled 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. Garland writes the script of the three films With Boyle returning as director of the third.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple He plans his premiere in cinemas for January 16, 2026, that is, seven months later at the launch of 28 Years Later.

Boyle explica:

“There is a coda … It is not a coda, it is the epilogue or a final theme at the end of the first film [28 años después] that gives way to the second. Although each story is completed alone, there is also a transition section to the next. So it is very ambitious. We still don't have the budget for the third. I guess it will depend on how you go to the first. But hopefully, if we are doing well, they will give us the approval for the budget and for the third. Everyone is waiting, really. Even Cillian.”

“[Murphy] It is in the second. I shouldn't reveal too much. They are going to kill me. “

As for whether or not he would return to direct the third film, Boyle is enthusiastic:

“One hundred percent. I would love it, yes. If God wants, etc., if there is health and all that,” he says. “But it also depends on how I go to the first. You may not want me to do it. You never know. You have to realize that there are many alternatives.”

“You know that of the sequels, that you want to extend them and risk a lot. I have to recognize the merit of [el estudio Sony Pictures]. Allowed us to take many freedoms with [28 Years Later]. They could have said: 'No, it has to be more like a sequel. You have to be based on some of the ideas of the original. And how is Cillian not to appear in the first? I thought you said Cillian was going to leave. ' We said: 'Yes, Cillian is going to leave, but not in the first.' So, respect them. They have endured a lot.”

The cast of 28 Years Later It is headed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Nosfer), Jodie Comer (Killing Eve), Jack O’Connell (Sinners), Alfie Williams (His Dark Materials) y Ralph Fiennes (The Menu, Harry Potter).

The plot is located in England, where a virus has devastated the country with the Rage virus, which transforms people into zombies. There we follow Jamie (Taylor-Johnson) and his 12-year-old son, Spike (Williams), who explore the world outside his isolated island of Lindisfarne, Northumberland, and find innumerable horrors not counted in the place.

The most recent sequel takes up the plot almost thirty years later following a group of survivors closely.

Official synopsis:

“Almost three decades have passed since the anger virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory and now, even in a quarantine imposed mercilessly, some have found ways to exist among those infected. One of those groups of survivors lives on a small island connected to the continent by a single road strongly defended. When one of the group members leaves the island in a mission towards the dark heart of the dark heart that have mutated not only those infected, but also other survivors. ”

The filming concluded the main photography in August 2024, having been filmed mainly in Holy Island, an island off the coast of the Northeast of England. Boyle used the iPhone 15 pro max model For filming.

• The sequel has a budget of $ 75 million, which becomes the largest film project to be shot with the use of a smartphone.

Boyle and Garland produce the feature film with the producer of the original, Andrew Macdonald, Peter Rice, and Bernie Bellew, and Cillian Murphy as executive producer. Anthony Dod Mantle (Slumdog Millionaire, 28 Days Later) is the director of photography.

In addition to becoming a commercial hit, the 2002 original film injected new life into the subgenre of Zombies, presenting a new form of living dead, moving away from those slow walkers, now being fierce and fast. He also analyzed the fragile nature of society in these pandemic scenarios, which would later be analyzed in other tapes such as Zombieland, World War Zand the series The Walking Deadamong others.

28 Years Later set its cinemas premiere for the June 20, 2025. The second installment, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple It will premiere on January 16, 2026.