‘Best zombie film ever made’ sequel gets major update after 17-year wait

Slated for release in June next year, the highly-anticipated sequel comes 17 years after the last one released – and fans have just been given an exciting update

Film fans have been given an exciting update about a highly-anticipated horror sequel that comes nearly two decades after the last.

Starring Cillian Murphy in his breakout role as a man who wakes up in hospital to a post-apocalyptic London, 28 Days Later released in 2002 and was a resounding success. The Danny Boyle-directed movie has since been hailed as one of ‘the best zombie films ever made’.

It was followed up with a sequel titled 28 Weeks Later in 2007, which followed a different set of characters as they navigated the same zombie outbreak. While Boyle directed the opening sequence, the rest of the film was under the direction of Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Since then, fans have been left clamoring for a fresh installment – and they have had a very long wait.

Now, 17 years on from the last film, fans have been given a huge update regarding the third in the series, 28 Years Later. Slated for release in June next year, the story will follow a young boy in the north of England who is trying to save his mother.

As the title suggests, it is set 28 years after the events of the first film, with a cast including Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Meanwhile Boyle will return as director.

Today (December 6) fans have been given a first look at the film’s poster, which bears the tagline “Time didn’t heal anything” against a backdrop of skulls in the shape of a biohazard symbol.

Eager fans have been flocking to share their thoughts on the image, with one writing: “I’m so psyched for this movie, huge fan of the previous films and this film will no doubt be absolutely amazing when it comes out, thank you Sony for bringing us back to this universe!”. Meanwhile another reiterated they had “waited years for a third film”, as another joked: “Triple feature marathon anyone.”

With the poster not bearing Cillian Murphy’s name, many fans questioned whether or not he would be in the film. The Oscar-winner did not appear in 28 Weeks Later, but it has been confirmed that he will be in this latest film in a ‘surprising’ way.

When asked if Cillian would be in the cast, Sony Motion Pictures Group chairman Tom Rothman told Deadline: “Yes, but in a surprising way and in a way that grows, let me put it that way… This is Danny (Boyle) at his best, combined with a very commercial genre, like we had with Edgar Wright and Baby Driver. Sometimes when you put a real signature director into a commercial arena, it elevates it.”

28 Years Later is set to be released in cinemas on June 20, 2025