How Hollywood typically works is that sequels aren’t ordered until movies prove themselves to be box office hits, but the story with 28 Years Later is a bit different. The long-awaited sequel to 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later was conceived as a trilogy from the outset, with both Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later […]
How Hollywood typically works is that sequels aren’t ordered until movies prove themselves to be box office hits, but the story with 28 Years Later is a bit different. The long-awaited sequel to 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later was conceived as a trilogy from the outset, with both Danny Boyle’s28 Years Later and its own sequel uniquely filmed back-to-back.
Yes, that means 28 Years Later: The Bone Templehas already wrapped production with director Nia DaCosta (Candyman) at the helm, and Sony has already given the film a release date. The Bone Temple will release 28 weeks from now on January 16, 2026.
Whether or not we get the third film in the planned trilogy, well, that’s seemingly dependent on the box office performance of these first two movies. But that’s a story for another day…
Today we’d like to focus on 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, the title of which makes a lot more sense now that we’ve seen 28 Years Later. The titular bone temple is of course a primary location in Danny Boyle’s trilogy-starter, the construction of a mysterious man by the name of Dr. Kelson. Played by Oscar nominee Ralph Fiennes, Kelson turns out to be a kind-hearted man who has taken up a unique hobby in the years since the world went to infected shit.
Dr. Kelson has taken it upon himself to construct a literal bone temple, made primarily of the skulls of the many dead bodies he’s come across in his travels. It’s Kelson’s tribute to the lives lost by the infection that’s ravaged the world the past 28 years, and a bold personification of the Latin phrase that serves as his north star: Memento mori, “remember you must die.”
The title of DaCosta’s sequel suggests we’ll be returning to that location, and it also suggests that Ralph Fiennes will be back in next year’s sequel. And that seems to be the case.
A SEQUEL TEASE FROM RALPH FIENNES
Fiennes tells Entertainment Weekly, “I can say that the themes that we touched on in the scene on the train, the moment of labor, the humanity — it is a critical moment in the life of a mother and child. The ultimate human moment is an infected woman who is giving birth to a baby who is not infected. The theme of innate humanity — is it still alive in the soul, in the heart, in the mind of an infected person? Are they completely corrupted? Are they only rabid? Or is there the possibility of something? Something human, it’s still there.”
Ralph Fiennes also notes in the same interview with EW, “We carry in us the potential for terrible destruction and pain. That theme is picked up very strongly in the next film.”
THE JIMMY & ALFIE OF IT ALL
The final minutes of 28 Years Later also suggest that The Bone Temple will heavily focus on Jack O’Connell’s “Sir Jimmy Crystal” and his merry band of evil-doers, with the film being book-ended by Jimmy’s apocalypse origin story and later a quick – and tonally bonkers – status update on the man he’s become in the years since. Jimmy and his fellow Jimmys save our young hero Spike (Alfie Williams) from a horde of infected, strongly suggesting that A) Alfie is now in a whole heap of trouble and B) the tone of The Bone Temple may be a bit different.
Danny Boyle tells IGN that Jimmy is a “hugely significant figure” in Nia DaCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. He previews, “It’s the epilogue or an end theme at the end of the first film that gives you a handover to the second film.” The character and his gang seem to be inspired by real life figure Jimmy Savile, which may offer clues to what’s coming next.
O’Connell recently told GQ, “He is a gas cunt. I don’t know quite how to describe him yet. He definitely exists in the darker pocket, certainly in contrast to anything I’ve ever played before.”
As for young Spike, his journey will be documented throughout the next two movies, with Alfie Williams reprising the role in both The Bone Temple and that film’s planned sequel.
A CERTAIN BICYCLE COURIER
The other main thing we know about 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple at this time is that Cillian Murphy’s character Jim from 28 Days Later is expected to make an appearance.
“[DaCosta] gets a bit of Cillian at the end,” Boyle recently told Business Insider. “All I can say is you have to wait for Cillian, but hopefully he will help us get the third film financed.”
Cillian Murphy played protagonist Jim in 28 Days Later back in 2002, a bicycle courier who ends up being one of the few survivors of the apocalyptic events of the hit infection movie.
Boyle’s aforementioned comments on the actor’s appearance in The Bone Temple suggest that Jim will play a much bigger role in the third installment if it ends up being greenlit.
Like 28 Years Later, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple was written by original 28 Days scribe Alex Garland, and we expect to learn more very soon. In the meantime, we’ll be keeping our eyes locked on the film’s box office performance for clues about the trilogy’s future. At this time, 28 Years Later has scared up $60 million worldwide, so it’s off to a pretty strong start.
Stay tuned for more on all things 28 Years Later as we learn it.
