Last Updated on January 8, 2026 by Angel Melanson
Following the beautifully bonkers ending of Danny Boyle's 28 Years Later and a recently announced greenlight for the final chapter of the trilogy, anticipation is high for The Bone Temple, hitting theaters on January 16 via Sony. In Nia DaCosta's post-apocalyptic zombie horror, survivors of the Rage Virus that ravaged Britain almost three decades prior are left to fend for themselves. Among them, the peaceful pariah Dr. Kelson, played by Oscar-nominee Ralph Fiennes, whose relationship with the behemothic “Alpha” Infected Samson, played by MMA fighter turned actor Chi Lewis-Parry, takes center stage among the carnage.
Ahead of The Bone Temple‘s release, FANGORIA sat down with Fiennes and Lewis-Parry to talk rage, redemption, and retaining humanity among the horror.
Dr. Kelson and Samson go on such an interesting journey in The Bone Temple. These two are really the heart of this story, and craft this really empathetic pulse that runs throughout the movie. What did the bonding process look like for the two of you both on and off set?
Ralph Fiennes: Chi is a wonderful person, and he comes to the set with this wonderful energy of commitment, totally there. And it's wonderful to be opposite your scene partner and to feel they're ready to go. That builds between you. And I think we just hit the set, and we didn't analyze or discuss, we just started the scene. The first scene we shot was when I'm pulling the morphine darts out of his chest. I talk to him, I play the dialogue, he is responding and we're just in it together. And over a number of takes, you get a bit more confident, you sit in it with a bit more presentness, I suppose, and then, you hope the director's putting the camera in the right place [laughs].
Chi Lewis-Parry, now with his arm draped lovingly around Fiennes: Reading each other's energy as well, and knowing what to give back, and when to give and when to take, because there has to be a leader at stages.
Why do you feel it's so important for audiences to follow Kelson and Samson in this chapter of the story specifically?
CL-P: There's an opportunity for redemption in this storyline and the narrative of hope that humanity can prevail once again. Because the Infected are people. They might be consumed by rage, but they are still people. And while humanity has isolated this island and given up on its inhabitants, this one man, who has seen it all and been through it all, has said, “You know what? My ethics as a doctor, as a human being, sees something in you, sees beyond your rage.” And it speaks of how humans ultimately treat each other today, which is sad.
The Bone Temple was shot back-to-back with 28 Years Later with two very different directors. What did Nia bring to the table that was really unique and different from your experience with Danny and vice versa?
RF: Nia was quite delicately forensic with the closeups, and really looking… I can remember a scene with Jack O'Connell [who returns to The Bone Temple as tha maniacal Jimmy Crystal] and me where she just kept on letting us find little subtle things. She gave time, actually, a lot of time, whereas Danny, he's much more instinctive. Danny will see quite quickly that he's got it. He knows what he wants and he'll know when it's there. He's got a very strong sense of what he needs, and that probably speaks to his experience. He's made so many films and he just goes, “That's the moment.” Directors who've done many films, I think they know they need two good takes which they can take away with.
Also, Anthony Dodd Mantle, Danny's DOP, has got a number of cameras, certainly two, if not four. You don't quite know where they are all the time, and sometimes I quite like not knowing where the camera is because it means I just have to be connected to the person I'm acting with. As soon as you know where the camera is, a bit of you is getting.. [gestures to demonstrate distractedness]. knowing that the camera's there. There's something delicately forensic with Nia and something incredibly spontaneous, and then, propulsive about Danny.
Kelson and Samson learn so much from each other throughout this movie, and there's obviously that enduring lesson about how we interact with our fellow man. So I'm curious, is there anything you as actors took away from your respective characters?
CL-P: Strangely, I feel like we are those people. I feel there has to be a strong element of ourselves in order for it to come across as well as it has. There is definitely an element of Samson in me, and there's an element of Kelson in Ralph, but that's what I love about him is, he cares. He lets you know he cares. He's not afraid to let you know that he cares. He's willing to take that risk. And I think it is a risk in today's day and age because we are vulnerable, and people exploit that all the time, and especially in the landscape of 28 Years Later.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple releases in theaters on January 16 via Sony Pictures. For more, make sure to grab the latest issue of FANGORIA to read our exclusive interview with director Nia DaCosta.
Watch our full interview with Ralph Fiennes and Chi Lewis-Parry below.
