28 Years Later, the official return of the zombie franchise created by Danny Boyle is set to make its return in June 2025. And although the premiere is still a few months away, Ralph Fiennes, one of the stars of the film, has spilled the beans about the plot of the sequel.
In a conversation with IndieWire about his next film, the Pope thriller Conclave, Fiennes shared a few details about 28 Years Later, the film that has reunited Alex Garland and Danny Boyle, writer and director, respectively. Obviously, it jumps ahead 28 years into the future, but Fiennes shared the following about the plot:
“Britain is 28 years into this terrible plague of infected people who are violent, rabid humans with a few pockets of uninfected communities. And it centers on a young boy who wants to find a doctor to help his dying mother. He leads his mother through this beautiful northern English terrain.
But of course, around them hiding in forests and hills and woods are the infected. But he finds a doctor who is a man we might think is going to be weird and odd, but actually is a force for good.”
28 Years Later is the third part of the franchise that began in 2002 when Jim (Cillian Murphy) woke up from a coma in a deserted London. He finds humans have been infected with a virus that turns them into raging and hungry zombies, but finding survivors gives him hope. The sequel, 28 Weeks Later, was directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, and it featured none of the characters from the first movie, and instead focused on the story of two siblings trying to escape their infected father. Part three brings the team back, including the now Academy Award winner Murphy, who teams up with Fiennes, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Jodie Comer.
As if this weren’t enough to make us more excited about what’s coming next year, Fiennes also spewed out a revelation about the future of the 28 franchise. Logically, decades or centuries would come after years, but Fiennes didn’t exactly address the time unit. Instead, he said this:
It’s three films, of which two have been shot.
Why 28 Days Later is Such an Important Film for the Horror Genre
With 28 Days Later, Boyle revolutionized not only the zombie genre with extremely fast and mindless flesh-eaters, but he proved original horror could thrive during the remake craze of the early 2000s. His film was also a pioneer in terms of realism and the slow-burn drama that shows Jim as an average survivor without any drive to turn into a savior.
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It’s regarded as one of the best zombie films ever made, and while it doesn’t match George A. Romero’s groundbreaking style in portraying the zombie apocalypse, Boyle accomplished something special with 28 Days Later: he was able to capture the hopelessness in a dystopian world during a time when, regardless of the genre, humans (and Americans, most of all) always seemed to get the happy ending. 28 Days Later has an open and quite hopeful ending, but the doubt that remained forever cemented the idea that “in an apocalypse, we better not get Boyle’s zombies.”
- Release Date
- June 20, 2025
- Main Genre
- Horror