28 Years Later marks a surprising first for Danny Boyle and Alex Garland. Not only are the director and writer reuniting after a decade apart, but they’re doing so with a sequel. Apart from T2, Boyle’s 2017 sequel to Trainspotting, neither he nor Garland has attempted to build franchises out of their ideas. But 28 Years Later will be the first film in a trilogy, turning the duo’s revolutionary zombie world into a cinematic universe.
As novel as that sounds, this isn’t the first time Boyle or Garland has considered making a trilogy. According to Boyle, there were plans to give Sunshine, their 2007 space-horror about a group of astronauts trying to reignite a dying sun, similar treatment. “Originally, when we were doing it, Alex wrote two other parts,” Boyle recently told Collider. Garland hadn’t progressed beyond the outlining stage, but both parties were interested in continuing the story... if Sunshine had been a bigger hit.
