NEW YORK – Over two decades after his breakout film 28 Days Later (2002) revived the zombie apocalypse genre – and sparked a long-running debate about whether it was, in fact, a zombie movie – English director Danny Boyle is back with another chapter.
Opening in Singapore cinemas on June 19, 28 Years Later is the much-anticipated continuation of a franchise that began with Irish actor Cillian Murphy’s character waking up in a London ravaged by a rage-inducing virus.
And that story was picked up with the sequel 28 Weeks Later (2007), directed by Spanish film-maker Juan Carlos Fresnadillo.
At a recent New York screening of the new film, Boyle, joined by English cast members Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, says the enduring appeal of the first movie surprised him.
“When you make films, it doesn’t matter whether they’re successful or not. They all fade gradually, as they should. People forget them.
“But some of them, occasionally, they stick. And the first one just seemed to resonate with people still,” says the 68-year-old film-maker.
“People used to put on screenings and ask me to go to Q&As, and people would be really intense.”
So, he and Alex Garland, the 55-year-old English novelist who wrote the original film – and who says it is a zombie tale, even though the infected are not reanimated corpses – decided to add to the franchise.
The pair initially came up with an idea for a sequel where a government or military weaponised the virus, says Boyle. He won a Best Director Oscar for the coming-of-age drama Slumdog Millionaire (2008) and also directed the comedy-drama Trainspotting (1996).
But they eventually discarded that for a bigger idea revolving around husband and wife Jamie (Taylor-Johnson) and Isla (Comer), who have a young son (Alfie Williams).
Actors Aaron Taylor-Johnson (left) and Jodie Comer (right) with director Danny Boyle (centre) at the presentation of the movie 28 Years Later in Madrid, Spain, on June 6. PHOTO: EPA-EFE
And this will be the first in a new trilogy that includes 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, opening in Singapore cinemas on Jan 15, 2026.
But Boyle clarifies that each movie will stand alone and that 28 Years Later is independent.
“It inherits stuff from the first film. It’s still the same apocalypse as it was for Cillian Murphy in the first film,” says the director, who also helmed the biographical dramas 127 Hours (2010) and Steve Jobs (2015).
For Comer, whose character Isla suffers from memory loss, 28 Days Later left a lasting impression.
Jodie Comer in 28 Years Later.PHOTO: SONY PICTURES
“I was relatively young when it came out, but I always remember how it made me feel,” says the 32-year-old, who won an Emmy for playing an assassin in the spy series Killing Eve (2018 to 2022).
“For something to be so original and so heightened, and have this element of terror and fear but ultimately be about human connection, and really character-focused and intimate at times, that really struck me.
“And to see our society and London visually that way, I’d never seen that before.”
Taylor-Johnson – star of the Kick-Ass (2010 to 2013), Avengers: Age Of Ultron (2015) and Kraven The Hunter (2024) superhero films – was also struck by those haunting images of empty London streets.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson (left) and Alfie Williams in 28 Years Later. PHOTO: SONY PICTURES
“It was such iconic film-making. Cillian walking through the streets of London had such a visual impact on you,” he says of the Irish actor, who won an Oscar playing the title role in the war biography Oppenheimer (2023).
Boyle, always experimental with form, shot much of 28 Years Later using the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
“There are lots of (traditional) cameras used, but we used the iPhone a lot as well,” he says.
“Because the sophistication of phones and cameras generally is so much greater than it was before, you can take huge risks with it.
“We shot in a very widescreen format because we wanted you to see the spread of nature and this world, and these characters isolated within it,” he adds.
“And there are a couple of shots that – and I don’t normally say this – are really cool,” he teases.
“They’re very violent, so they’re not allowed on YouTube or anything like that. So, you will see them only in a cinema.”
- 28 Years Later opens in Singapore cinemas on June 19.
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