Ralph Fiennes has shared intriguing plot details about the forthcoming 28 Days Later sequel despite them being “kept under wraps”.
Seven months after the cast was announced for the project, information about the storyline has now arrived thanks to the Harry Potter star, who’ll appear alongside Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
While original star Cillian Murphy told The Independent he’d say “yes” to returning in a follow-up, the actor will not be a part of the main cast. Instead, his appearance has been touted as “surprising”.
It’s also been revealed that 28 Years Later will be the first instalment of a trilogy, with Fiennes confirming: “It’s three films, of which two have been shot.”
The first film in the series, titled 28 Years Later, will be released 24 years after the original, with filmmaker Danny Boyle returning to oversee proceedings. Nia DaCosta, the filmmaker behind The Marvels and the 2021 Candyman film, has directed part two, which is subtitled The Bone Temple.
It is believed Murphy, who is currently shooting the Peaky Blinders film, will have a bigger role in the second film of the new series.
Fiennes has now shed light on what the films will look like, perhaps prematurely considering, so far, the plot has been kept under wraps. He told IndieWire: “Britain is 28 years into this terrible plague of infected people who are violent, rabid humans with a few pockets of uninfected communities, and it centres on a young boy who wants to find a doctor to help his dying mother.
“He leads his mother through this beautiful northern English terrain. But of course, around them hiding in forests and hills and woods, are the infected. But he finds a doctor who is a man we might think is going to be weird and odd, but actually is a force for good.”
The film follows on from another sequel, 28 Weeks Later , which was released in 2007.
Unlike the very first film in the series, which had a modest budget of just £8m, the new sequels have a reported budget of £75m each.
Fiennes is currently in contention for Best Actor at next year’s Oscars for his role in Conclave, a drama about the the selection of a new pope from All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger.
The film will be released on 29 November. 28 Years Later is scheduled to be released on 20 June 2025.
