“28 Days Later” Director & Writer Tease “28 Years Later” Sequel
It’s been over twenty years since Searchlight Pictures released the Zombie apocalypse film, “28 Days Later”, which is about an infirmary patient, who awakens from a coma to an empty room in a vacant hospital in a deserted city. A powerful virus, which locks victims into a permanent state of murderous rage, has transformed the world around him into a seemingly desolate wasteland. Now a handful of survivors must fight to stay alive, unaware that the worst is yet to come.
The film was followed up by a sequel four years later called, “28 Weeks Later”, which picks up six months after the rage virus has annihilated Mainland Britain. The US army declares that the war against infection has been won, and that the reconstruction of the country can begin. As the first wave of refugees return, a family is reunited – but one of them unwittingly carries a terrible secret. The virus is not yet dead, and this time, it is more dangerous than ever.
During a recent interview with Inverse, “28 Days Later” director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland provided an update on potential follow-up, which might skip the obvious naming convention, “28 Months Later”, and move to “28 Years Later”.
Andrew Macdonald: I’d like there to be a sequel a lot.
Alex Garland: But a few years ago an idea materialized in my head for what would be really 28 Years Later. Danny always liked the idea.
Danny Boyle: So we’re talking about it quite seriously, quite diligently. If he doesn’t want to direct it himself I’ll be well up for it, if we can execute a similarly good idea.
While the first movie was directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland, but with the sequel, due to busy schedules, they weren’t able to work 100% on the film. Alex explained why he has resisted doing a follow-up:
“I resisted [making a sequel] for a long time because there were things about 28 Weeks that bugged me. I just thought, ‘F*ck that. I’d rather try to write a different story in a different world.’”
It’s unknown if a sequel, “28 Years Later”, is in the works at Searchlight Pictures or if this is just the pair floating the idea publically to get the studio behind it, but following the success of “The Walking Dead” and other Zombie franchises, with it already being over twenty years since the original film was released, it could work out. And with Disney looking for more franchises to explore and smaller-budget horror films being extremely successful, hopefully, we might see this sequel come to light.
In the meantime, you can watch 28 Weeks Later” now on Disney+ in the UK, Canada and Australia.
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Roger Palmer
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