28 Years Later: Danny Boyle to helm trilogy’s third film. Is Cillian Murphy involved?

Danny Boyle is returning for more zombie madness. After helming 28 Days Later and 28 Years Later, Boyle will direct the third entry in the 28 Years Later trilogy.

According to Empire Magazine, Boyle’s third film will not go into production until audiences “respond to the first film.” The trilogy’s second film, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, directed by Nia DaCosta, opens in theaters on January 16, 2026.

While speaking to Empire, Boyle revealed his “wholly different approach” to 28 Years Later. The film focuses on a community of survivors on Holy Island, aka Lindisfarne, a secluded community connected to the U.K. mainland. The Rage Virus is still wreaking havoc on the overall population, but the Holy Island community has managed to keep it outside its walls.

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It’s a closed and necessarily very tight community,” Boyle said. “There are very strict defense laws, obviously, to survive that long in what is effectively an ongoing hostile environment. They’ve created a successful community, as they see it.”

28 Years Later reunites Boyle with screenwriter Alex Garland, who also wrote 28 Days Later. The cast includes Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Erin Kellyman, and Edvin Ryding.

One of the notable names missing is Cillian Murphy, who played Jim in 28 Days Later. In the harrowing trailer for 28 Years Later, many fans believed they briefly spotted an infected Jim in the footage. That’s not the case, as producer Andrew Macdonald revealed Murphy is not in 28 Years Later. Macdonald did leave the door open for Murphy’s return in a later entry.

“He’s involved at the moment as an executive producer, and I would hope we can work with him in some way in the future in the trilogy,” Macdonald said.

28 Years Later opens theatrically on June 20, 2025.