28 Years Later was always a trilogy. It has been that way every single day since early 2024, when it was first announced. Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland conceived it as such, but only got Sony to commit to making two of the three films. The third film would only come if Sony saw the audience’s appetite for it. And now it has.
Film two in the series, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, opens next month, but following a series of very well-received press screenings, Deadline reports Sony has given a green light to the still untitled third film. Garland is writing, Boyle is expected to direct, and most importantly, Cillian Murphy is expected to star.
Murphy got his big break way back in 2002 when Boyle and Garland first teamed up for the indie hit 28 Days Later. In the decades that followed, he’s grown into a major star, even winning the Oscar for Best Actor earlier this year for his work in Oppenheimer. His character survived the original film, but didn’t appear in the first sequel, 2007’s 28 Weeks Later, or this year’s 28 Years Later. He apparently appears near the end of The Bone Temple, setting up a story that will bring the whole franchise together.
It’s all part of that big, original plan. “That was key to the idea was it was a story that couldn’t naturally fit in one film,” Garland told io9 last year. “And there was a possibility—which we may not have the opportunity to do—but to do a proper trilogy. Not a sequence of sequels that are effectively replaying the first thing just in slightly different forms, but an actual true narrative. And we don’t know if we’ll be able to do it because that relates, in the end, to market forces. Films cost a lot of money. Even cheap films cost a lot of money. You know, people talk low-budget, but it’s a lot of money always. And so that depends on really whether people want to see future ones after we’ve made it.”
It depends no longer. It’s happening. And we can’t wait to see how it all comes together. 28 Years Later is now available to watch at home. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, directed by Nia DaCosta, opens January 16, 2026.
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