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Thursday, October 1, 2026

28 Years Later part 3 WILL happen and will feature a lot of 'gorgeous' Cillian Murphy, says Danny Boyle

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After a period of radio silence, Danny Boyle has reassured fans that the third film in the 28 Years Later trilogy will be happening, and fans can expect to see plenty of Cillian Murphy's Jim in it.

As a reminder, when the trilogy was announced, studio Sony had only greenlit the first two — which were filmed back-to-back — and would make the decision about the third based on their performance.

The first film made a solid $151 million at the box office, but there was a sharp drop off for The Bone Temple, which made just $58.5 million on the big screen.

cillian murphy in 28 years later: the bone temple

Sony Pictures

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Fans were starting to get worried that the third film had been cancelled, although Alfie Williams teased in the summer that he was gearing up to play Spike again, while Murphy himself said that the delay was actually down to the filming location only allowing cameras to roll at "certain times of the year".

Now the big boss behind the series has given his word that the third film will make it to screens.

"28 Years 3, or whatever it ends up being called, will get made because people keep asking about it," he said at the Zurich Film Festival (via Variety).

"Quite when I'm not sure, but there's a script – a very good script by Alex Garland."

cillian murphy as jim, 28 days later

20th Century Studios

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And when it comes to Jim, Boyle teased that the film will have "a lot of Cillian Murphy in it".

Referring the 28 Days Later's iconic opening scene, where Jim wakes up naked before putting on some hospital scrubs and wandering around a deserted London, the director cheekily added: "Whether he'll take his kit off anymore, that I don’t know. He's got the Oscar now.

"He's gorgeous. When we took his kit off, I couldn't believe it. He looked like Iggy Pop!

"Everything was glistening. Oh my God. He's just one of those people. He doesn't work out or anything like that: he just looks like that."

28 Years Later and The Bone Temple are available to stream on Sky/NOW Cinema.

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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.

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