‘28 Years Later III’ Moving Forward At Sony With Cillian Murphy In Talks; Alex Garland Penning

Following the phenomenal early reception for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Sony is moving forward with the threequel, which will mark the return original star Cillian Murphy to the franchise.

via: Deadline

Sony is proceeding with a third 28 Years Later movie following the electric fan reaction from recent screenings of the second film, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, directed by Nia DaCosta. That pic comes out over MLK weekend, on January 16, 2026. The third movie in the latest trilogy doesn’t have a title yet.

The buzz is that 28 Days Later star Cillian Murphy, who reprises his role in The Bone Temple, is in talks, and franchise scribe Alex Garland is currently writing part 3. Murphy is an EP on 28 Years Later and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. The Oppenheimer Best Actor Oscar winner is repped by CAA and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.

When Sony won rights to the 28 Years Later trilogy, it had the option for the third movie but waited to greenlight it. Rather, it shot the first two movies back-to-back with Danny Boyle returning to direct the first, and Candyman filmmaker DaCosta helming the second. Boyle has said in interviews he’d like to helm the third 28 Years Later, and it’s hopeful he’ll return.

28 Years Later opened to $30 million in June, one of the top openings for a horror movie in a year flooded with them. The movie went onto to gross $70.4M domestic and $151.3M worldwide, easily the highest-grossing in the franchise that started back at Fox Searchlight in 2002 with 28 Days Later. The original, directed by Boyle and written by Garland, was followed by 2007’s 28 Weeks Later, which was directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and written by Fresnadillo, Rowan Joffe, Enrique López Lavigne and Jesús Olmo.

All in, the entire British horror series across three movies has minted close to $300 million worldwide. The films take place in a dystopian future where the “infected” have ravenously squared off with the human population, which as you’ll see in Bone Temple is fiercely divided.

The hoots and hollers coming from the Century City Westfield mall last night weren’t from the Christmas lights strung about, rather the fan screening for Bone Temple at the AMC Century City multiplex.

Gold Derby and IndieWire scribe Simon Thompson beamed in the first round of social media reactions, saying of the pic and stars Jack O’Connell and Ralph Fiennes: “Nia DaCosta knocks it out of the park with #28YearsLater #TheBoneTemple. The complex tapestry of tones provides the perfect canvas for a brutal and nightmarish study of unchecked power. O’Connell goes all in on maniacal Sir Jimmy while Fiennes eats up needle drops like a demon.”

Sony had no comment when reached about today’s news.

Garland is repped by WME and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher.