Cillian Murphy won’t appear in ’28 Years Later’ but will feature in sequel
Danny Boyle has confirmed Cillian Murphy doesn’t appear in 28 Years Later but the Irish actor will pop up in the film’s sequel, according to the director.
Murphy previously starred in 2002’s 28 Days Later and was rumoured to be the zombie figure seen in the trailer for 28 Years Later. However, this was later discovered to be Angus Neill, who bears a striking resemblance to the Oppenheimer star.
However, Boyle has now confirmed that Murphy’s character, Jim, does appear towards the end of the sequel, The Bone Temple, which is scheduled for a 2026 release.
“He is in the second one,” Boyle told IGN of Murphy’s involvement in 28 Years Later. “I shouldn’t give away too much. I’ll get killed.”
Meanwhile, in a separate interview with Business Insider, “All I can say is you have to wait for Cillian, but hopefully he will help us get the third film financed.”
The Bone Temple has already been shot but a third film in the series is dependent on the box office success of 28 Years Later this summer.
Boyle elaborated on this subject to IGN, explaining: “Although each story [in the trilogy] completes itself, there’s a handover section to the next film as well. So it’s very ambitious. We haven’t got the money for the third one yet. It will depend how the first one does, I guess.”
The director added: “But hopefully if we do okay, they’ll give us the go-ahead for the money and for the third one. Everybody’s standing by for that, really. Including Cillian.”
28 Years Later is scheduled for release on June 20th, 2025, and earlier this week, Boyle appeared alongside lead actor Jodie Comer and co-star Aaron Taylor-Johnson at an event in New York to promote the movie.
At the event, Comer said of her connection to the original movie: “I was relatively young when it came out, but I always remember how it made me feel. For something to be so original, so heightened, and have this element of terror and fear, but ultimately be about human connection – that really struck me. I felt like I’d never seen anything like it before.”
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