‘28 Days Later’ Sequels Finally Happening

Those fast-moving zombies sure took their sweet time coming back. But now they are here.

Confirming recent rumors that sequels to the modern zombie classic 28 Days Later were being shopped around Hollywood, The Hollywood Reporter says the projects have landed at Sony, where two new sequels are being developed by original 28 Days Later director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland. The films will be known as 28 Years Later. (There was one previous sequel in the franchise, 2007’s 28 Weeks Later, which had only minimal involvement from Boyle and Garland.)

Per THR, Boyle and Garland “have reunited to write and direct the sequel, which also comes with a Part 2, to be written by Garland. Boyle would only direct the first project, with the sequel’s director to be determined at a later stage.” They also note that Cillian Murphy who starred in the original film is involved as an executive producer who “could also possibly act in the project.”

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In the original 28 Days Later from 2002, Murphy plays Jim, a man who awakens a month into a zombie outbreak in London and finds the city all but abandoned to flesh eaters. Together with a few other survivors, he struggles to find a safe haven from the infected, who have been transformed by a “rage virus” into mindless monsters. The original movie ended on an upbeat note, with Jim and several others escaping the city and awaiting rescue by the military — although the film had multiple alternate endings, all of which ended with Jim dying instead.

28 Days Later’s original innovation, in addition to its grungy digital photography and eerie scenes of an abandoned London — an element of the movie that seemed disturbingly prescient amidst the lockdowns of 2020 — was its introduction of fast-moving zombies instead of the plodding, brainless hordes who’d typified the genre to that point. Which raises the question: What horrifying nightmare will Boyle and Garland introduce this time?