We already have a trailer for Danny Boyle’s “28 Years Later.” The film, shot on an iPhone 15, and releasing in June, is the first chapter of a trilogy penned by Alex Garland (“Civil War”).
“28 Years Later” stars Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes and Charlie Hunman. Nia DaCosta has also wrapped production on the follow-up, titled “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.” What about the third film?
Boyle is telling Empire that he’s going to be directing the trilogy capper, but that it won’t be shot “until audiences respond to the first film.” Judging by the record-breaking reaction to the trailer, I don’t believe Boyle/Garland will have much of a problem completing their trilogy.
In “28 Years Later,” Taylor-Johnson’s Jamie, Comer’s Isla, and their 12-year-old son Spike (Alfie Williams) are part of a community on Holy Island, connected to the UK mainland by a causeway only briefly accessible when the tide recedes each day.
“It’s a closed and necessarily very tight community,” says Boyle. “There are very strict defence laws, obviously, to survive that long in what is effectively an ongoing hostile environment. They’ve created a successful community, as they see it.” However, it soon comes time for Spike to take a “rite-of-passage trip” beyond the safety of Holy Island, to experience, with his own set of eyes, the “true state of the nation.” Needless to say, things don’t go according to plan.
Earlier in the year, after a heated bidding war, Sony prevailed and acquired the rights to Boyle/Garland’s “28 Years Later” trilogy. It was a hot package, and quite a few studios were in the running for the rights, including Warner Bros. Sony will finally be producing and distributing all three films.
Garland swears the trilogy is not a “cash-grab,” but rather story-driven. “This is very narratively ambitious. Danny and I understood that,” he explains. “We tried to condense it, but its natural form felt like a trilogy.”
“28 Years Later” hits theaters on June 20, 2025.