28 Years Later will finally take us back to the zombie apocalypse we first visited in 2002's 28 Days Later. Cillian Murphy's Jim was absent from 28 Weeks Later (which focused on a new cast), and after he was seemingly spotted on this follow-up's set, fans of the franchise are eager to learn what became of the survivor.
Well, wonder no more, as filmmaker Danny Boyle has spoiled plans for Jim in two separate interviews. Talking to Business Insider, he confirmed that Murphy will return at the end of Nia DaCosta's 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which arrives in theaters next January.
"She gets a bit of Cillian at the end," Boyle revealed. "All I can say is you have to wait for Cillian, but hopefully he will help us get the third film financed."
"You promise [the studio] Cillian Murphy, that's quite a deflection of any technical concerns, they soon forget," he added. "Yeah, we nakedly used that to get our own way. What better promise could you make?"
A third instalment hasn't been officially greenlit, and while Boyle intends to direct the closing chapter of this trilogy, it currently remains to be seen whether he'll get the opportunity to do so. As always, that will depend on all-important box office receipts.
IGN also spoke to Boyle and learned more about what he has planned for the 28 Years Later trilogy. "Well, it's three films, a trilogy of films which have connecting characters," he explained. "He will run right way through the films. We've shot the first two back-to-back, and that was for logistical reasons, actor availability reasons, and for story reasons as well. They're literally continuous."
"There's a coda...it's not a coda, it's the epilogue or an end theme at the end of the first film [28 Years Later] that gives you a handover to the second film. Although each story completes itself, there's a handover section to the next film as well. So it's very ambitious."
"We haven't got the money for the third one yet. It will depend how the first one does, I guess," Boyle noted. "But hopefully if we do ok, they'll give us the go-ahead for the money and for the third one. Everybody's standing by for that, really. Including Cillian."
"He is in the second one...I have to say fair play to [studio Sony Pictures]. They did allow us to take great liberties with [28 Years Later]. They could have said, 'Oh no, it needs to be more sequel-y. You need to rely on some of the ideas that are in the original."
"And what do you mean Cillian's not going to appear in the first one? I thought you said Cillian was going to be in it.' We said, 'Yeah, Cillian is going to be in it, but not quite the first one.' So fair play to them. They've put up with a lot," he concluded.
Boyle has given a lot away here, but likely hopes this will increase interest in 28 Years Later and help make that third chapter a reality. With Murphy attached, though, we'd be shocked if Sony doesn't commit to it (even if these first two instalments aren't runaway hits).
In 28 Years Later, 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.
28 Years Later arrives in theaters on June 20, 2025.