No one ever said making a movie was easy. Even for director Danny Boyle and writer/director Alex Garland, bringing their new film 28 Years Later was 18 years in the making. 

Even though interest had grown and waned over the years, it was never a foregone conclusion. In fact, it was reported in 2007 by Bloody Disgusting that a sequel to 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later would never happen. 

Part of the reason was the state of the horror movie genre when 28 Weeks Later was released. It was a moderate success ($65 million worldwide with a $15 million budget), although it made less than 28 Days Later. And, with Saw IV being the highest grossing horror film in 2007, and 39th overall that year, the thirst for horror wasn’t at the level of return-on-investment we’re witnessing today.

But never say never when it comes to sequels.

The Relevance of ‘28 Days Later’

On September 11, 2001, Danny Boyle was in the middle of filming 28 Days Later. After the terror events of 9/11 took place, parts of Manhattan, one of the busiest cities in the world, were empty as people stayed inside, uncertain about when the next brazen attack would occur. This heightened state of anxiety plagued much of the world and turned people’s lives upside down. It’s hard to watch 28 Days Later without this lens.

One of the themes behind 28 Days Later is how the world can change at a moment’s notice. When a rage virus plagues London and the whole of the UK, the lives of ordinary citizens are upended. They must adapt and survive, quickly.

Post-apocalyptic scenarios are used frequently in horror films. Not only because characters are thrust into a world of uncertainty, but as Boyle stated in an L.A. Times interview, “One of the interesting questions with an apocalypse movie is: What do you look forward to? What do these people have to aim for?”

There wasn’t much to look forward to in 28 Days Later and, for a brief moment, there was hope at the conclusion of 28 Weeks Later. But now, in 28 Years Later, the survivors of the rage virus remain holed up on a remote island accessible to the mainland during only low tide and they continue life cautiously, yet optimistically. 

Boyle said, “They’re not aiming for a holiday or a good job qualification. So, all their focus probably goes into the lineage, the child being brought up in a certain way and taking their place.”

The post-apocalyptic question exists today, perhaps more than ever. With wars, political chaos and economic uncertainty, what does the world look forward to? And 28 Years Later is poised to take advantage of that question.

The ‘28 Months Later’ That Never Was

For 28 Months Later, Boyle and writer Alex Garland were set up with plenty of time to succeed. They could wait 2 years before a sequel came out to technically coincide with the timeline of the movie, and there were still signs of interest from the small box office success of 28 Weeks Later.

But the sequel wasn’t their baby. Both Boyle and Garland were entrenched in another project called Sunshine about a group of astronauts tasked with reigniting the dying sun. This film sent 28 Weeks Later into the hands of a different director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, and writers Rowan Joffe, Enrique López Lavigne and Jesús Olmo.

After that, Boyle went on to direct the Academy Award winning Slumdog Millionaire as well as many other high-profile films. While the desire was there for the next sequel, and Garland pitched ideas, nothing was pushing the filmmakers to move forward.

Time had slipped away, Garland had skyrocketed to success by directing films such as Ex Machina, Civil War and Warfare, and any chatter surrounding a 28 sequel never gained traction. In fact, Garland wrote a script that neither one felt comfortable moving forward with, which included foreign adversaries trying to weaponize the virus.

Nothing came to fruition.

Ralph Fiennes in '28 Years Later'

Here Come the Zombies!

In George Romero’s 1968 Night of the Living Dead, the world is introduced to the modern-day zombie. They are slow moving creatures that bite humans, turning them into zombies. They desire brains and human flesh. While they were scary, especially in numbers, the zombie story soon got stale.

Boyle and Garland changed the game. Being a zombie meant you’re infected with a rage virus that sent its victims into a delirious, maniacal state who could run, climb and pounce. With a Romero zombie, you could trip and fall, and still survive. A stumble trying to escape a Boyle zombie meant you’re dead meat.

This launched a whole new kind of zombie horror, which unleashed an onslaught of zombie movies with star talent. Zombieland was a comedy starring Woody Harrelson that envisioned a desolate world with few survivors, World War Z starred Brad Pitt and became a successful action thriller, and then there is the independent Christmas musical Anna and the Apocalypse about a small town being overrun by zombies.

Let’s not forget Frank Darabont’s The Walking Dead or Disney’s Zombies, which will have its fourth family-friendly sequel coming out this year.

What better time for Boyle and Garland to team up for another 28 film?

Slow Crawl to a Greenlight

“Who would have thought? I don’t like zombie movies. I never did. We took a genre and f*cked with it,” Danny Boyle shared in a Wired interview in 2013 when asked what he thought about the evolution of the zombie genre. At the time, Boyle even thought zombies were overexposed and back to walking slow - he wasn’t a fan.

But the world was going through a monumental shift. Amid Brexit, political uncertainty, COVD-19 and global instability, the ideas kept creeping in.

In 2022, Garland wrote a script for a sequel which Boyle thought was good, but generic. And Garland couldn’t argue that point so he dropped that idea and started working on a new version of the script. It was no longer 28 Months Later, but now 28 Years Later.

Boyle says, “What was great about the script is that although you were inheriting some DNA from the original film, it was a completely original story.”

In fact, Garland provided more than just a screenplay. He offered up a trilogy starting with 28 Years Later along with outlines for two succeeding films; 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is one he already wrote and has completed filming. The Nia Decosta directed film is scheduled for release early in 2026.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams in '28 Years Later'

‘28 Years Later’ for 2025

28 Days Later was filmed before/after 9/11, so it had an impact on what the film was about and the government response to the attacks. 28 Years Later takes a similar approach doing what horror does best – manifesting the fears of today into a genre designed to scare. Consider these movies and these themes:

• Invasion of the Body Snatchers – Conformity and anti-Communist sentiment
• Godzilla – The unintended consequences of nuclear proliferation
• Night of the Living Dead – Consumerism 

In an LA Times article, Boyle says, “Obviously COVID had happened and Brexit. Traumas that were unique to Britain, and some that were worldwide, that can’t help but bleed into the film.”

Garland had set out to create a movie in 2025 that had to have similarities to 2003 because the survivors on the island are frozen in time and quarantined from the rest of the world. If you talk to a fan of The Walking Dead, they’ll always say that it isn’t about zombies, but the survivors. That’s the key to creating a successful zombie film too.

28 Years Later is about a boy who must grow up and navigate his way through a dangerous world, that just happens to be filled with mutated zombies.