Cillian Murphy Won’t Appear in First Film of New ’28 Years Later’ Trilogy

After the internet went wild speculating that the zombie featured in the excellent 28 Years Later trailer was a zombified Jim, the character played by Cillian Murphy in 2002’s 28 Days Later, Empire Magazine has confirmed that the actor won’t appear at all in the upcoming first entry in the planned trilogy.

Director Danny Boyle reteams with writer Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Ex Machina, Annihilation) on 28 Years Later, with Murphy serving as executive producer, which has only fueled the expectation that Jim would return.

Producer Andrew Macdonald told Empire of Murphy’s hopeful return, “[On] this, we wanted him to be involved, and he wanted to be involved. He is not in the first film, but I’m hoping there will be some Jim somewhere along the line. 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.” In other words, the actor is strictly working behind the scenes, but the door is open for Jim’s return in a future installment.