The long-awaited sequel to the 28 Days Later trilogy recently received a promising update, and it comes from director Danny Boyle himself.
The infected zombie movie took the cinematic world by storm when it was released in 2002, producing frightening footage of some extremely fast-moving “monsters”. Twenty-eight days after a viral outbreak, Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma in a ruined London full of infected people.
After raising $82.7 million, the sequel, 28 Weeks Later, was greenlit and released in 2007. The sequel was also extremely well received by critics and audiences. At the time, however, a third part seemed a bit of a far-fetched idea.
In 2018, Garland admitted he had little hope for yet another film in the 28 Days Later mold. However, last year, Murphy said he was willing to reprise his role for a sequel if the opportunity arose.
What the director had to say about the possibility of a third film to be called 28 Days Later
In a recent interview with NME, Boyle talked about a possible sequel. The director revealed that Garland has already written a script for 28 Months Later.
“I’d be very tempted to direct it. In fact, it feels like a very good time for it. It’s funny, I didn’t think about it until you just said it,” he said.
“It might come back to our attention (…) It’s hard for the companies that distribute movies and the theater chains; they’re struggling to get people into the theater, unless it’s something like Top Gun: Maverick or a Marvel. But a third party would get people into the theatres, I think,” Boyle added confidently.
As the name suggests, the plot of After 28 Moons would take place nearly two and a half years after the first outbreak and would feature Britain essentially destroyed as the infection eventually spread across the English Channel to mainland Europe. As Boyle explained, Garland’s script would bring the story back to England.
However, something doesn’t add up, since if Cillian Murphy were to be brought back into the cast, it would have to somehow explain the fact that he had advanced in age by more than two and a half years.