Danny Boyle Teases a “Dominant” Return for Key Character in Final ’28 Years Later’ Film: “If We Get The Money”

Danny Boyle has big plans for 28 Years Later, and according to him, Cillian Murphy is going to be right at the center of it, at least if the third film gets made.

While fans will see Murphy in the upcoming 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, director Danny Boyle recently said, speaking with Josh Horowit,z that the third film in the trilogy will bring back Jim, Murphy’s character from 28 Days Later, in a much bigger way.

“If we get the money… the story arc is very carefully worked out”

This is not the first time that Boyle confirmed that Murphy’s character will eventually be back. In a previous interview he pretty much said the same thing:

“Cillian Murphy is an element in the second film and a very dominant element in the third film,” Boyle said. “There’s a story arc across all three films. The principle of this is what we sold to Sony… We’re not going to lie to people. It is a trilogy.”

Murphy won’t be the only familiar face. Ralph Fiennes plays a key role in the second movie, which continues the story of Britain years after the Rage virus outbreak. While the new movies won’t connect directly to 28 Weeks Later, Boyle and writer Alex Garland chose to go in a different direction that builds off the original.

“What Alex and I decided to do was make an original film. But it’s a story influenced by 28 Days Later,” Boyle said. “It does not follow what happened in 28 Weeks Later, where the virus got into Europe.”

They’ve even thought about how the virus was pushed back across the Channel so Europe could isolate Britain and let it all burn out.

Boyle called the trilogy “ambitious storytelling,” but made it clear it’s not on the level of big Hollywood franchises. “It’s not ambitious like Mission: Impossible scale. But it’s ambitious in terms of its intellectual ideas and its emotional reach through the genre,” he said. “It’s a wonderful genre because it’s got that flex in it. If you’ve got enough horror in it…”

The upcoming movie stars Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Jack O’Connell, and follows a family trying to survive in a crumbling Britain still plagued by the Rage Virus. The stakes are higher, the virus is deadlier, and old secrets are about to resurface.

Though 28 Years Later is now moving forward, Boyle shared that Garland had once written a more conventional follow-up.

“Alex originally wrote a script that was more a traditional sequel,” he said. “Like a ‘weaponise the virus’ type idea… Classic Alien-type idea, where you keep the thing going by doing that. We just didn’t want to do that. There was something fresher we could tackle.”

Filming for 28 Years Later began in May 2024 and finished in July. It was mostly shot in northern England, in places like Northumberland, Yorkshire, and even Somerset. Unusually, most of it was shot on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, along with drones and film cameras. Cillian Murphy is involved, but as a producer.

The movie is expected to hit theaters in the UK, US, and Canada on June 20, 2025, and it’s being produced by Columbia Pictures.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!