Nia DaCosta's 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, the follow-up to Danny Boyle's 28 Years Later, hits theaters on January 16, 2026, with today bringing a first look at the second in a new zombie saga trilogy.
Returning for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple are stars Ralph Fiennes, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, newcomer Alfie Williams and Jack O'Connell, survivors of the Rage Virus that ravaged Britain almost three decades prior. Also returning is MMA fighter Chi Lewis-Parry, who plays a behemoth “Alpha” Infected known as Samson (seen in today's new images).
While not returning in a directorial capacity this time, Boyle produces, as does 28 Years Later write Alex Garland, with 28 Days Later star Cillian Murphy executive producing, as well as making a return in some capacity to his role of bike courier Jim from the original 2002 film.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, who debuted the first look images earlier today, Candyman‘s DaCosta states that her chapter of 28 Years Later Infected saga retains the same “bonkers, idiosyncratic, and very artistically personal” as Boyle's horror hit from earlier this year, while also stressing how different her follow-up is, as well as expanding on some of the themes she'll explore:
“The concept of the rage virus gives us the opportunity to really talk about humanity […] In particular in this film, [it’s about] the nature of evil and how we contextualize that in a world with a lot of belief systems that have been created in order to handle the meaninglessness of existence. That’s one of my favorite things about this genre of film — it’s the look at humanity and what we do to each other. In the film, we have the infected and we have people who aren’t infected. Who’s really doing worse things?”
Today's new images give us a better look at the cult of “Jimmies”, led by O'Connell's Sir Jimmy Crystal, introduced in the bizarre denouement of 28 Years Later. According to DaCosta, in The Bone Temple, Williams' Spike will be forced to join Jimmy’s violent cult, which is on a collision course with Dr. Kelson (Fiennes) and his Alpha virus-carrier Samson (Lewis-Parry).
A third as-of-now untitled entry in the new 28 Years Later trilogy is set to be directed by Boyle again, but is dependent on 28 Years Later's financial success. However, given that 28 Years Later is the biggest zombie box office hit in years, we can't imagine any producer in their right mind would turn down the chance to get a piece of the pie.
Check out the new images of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple below and stay tuned for a trailer imminently…
