Why Cillian Murphy’s 28 Years Later Part III Probably Won’t Happen

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It took a long time, but last year, director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland finally reunited to finish what they started back in the early 2000s. “28 Years Later” brought us back to their terrifying vision of the zombie apocalypse, which began in 2002 with “28 Days Later,” one of the best zombie movies of all time. But Boyle and Garland had more ambitious plans, intending to deliver an entire trilogy of films. So, what’s going on with “28 Years Later Part III” right now? Unfortunately, it’s not looking great.

“28 Years Later Part III” recently got an official update from Boyle, with the director saying that the sequel is on the “back burner.” Part of that has to do with the fact that Garland is off filming his “Elden Ring” movie for A24, which is a big undertaking. Boyle, for his part, is currently promoting his movie “Ink,” which is very much in the awards season race. But that’s not the biggest thing getting in the way of them finishing this horror trilogy.

Directed by Nia DaCosta (“Candyman”), this year’s “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” finally delivered the moment that fans have been waiting for, with Cillian Murphy’s Jim making his long-awaited return. Without getting too heavy into spoiler territory, Murphy’s role was rather small, doing a lot of work to tee up the presumed third entry that would put a bow on this ambitious trilogy. Sadly, though, the whole enterprise was predicated on delivering for Sony Pictures, which means doing business at the box office.

That’s where things get complicated. While “28 Years Later” killed it at the box office, the same can’t be said for its successor. Therein lies the problem.

Director Danny Boyle’s first installment in this proposed trilogy took in $151 million worldwide against a budget in the $60 million range. Sony was high on what Boyle and Alex Garland were selling, agreeing to make the first two movies pretty much back-to-back. So, Nia DaCosta stepped in to make “The Bone Temple,” which was greeted with open arms by critics, but that didn’t do much to help its commercial prospects.

“28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” flopped at the box office, taking in just $58.5 million globally on a similar budget. Even if it did very well on VOD and streaming, that’s a lot of ground to make up, especially since theaters generally keep around half of the money from ticket sales. It established a pretty steep downward trend that, understandably, wouldn’t give Sony (or any other studio for that matter) a lot of confidence when it comes to putting up the dough for a third movie.

So, what the heck happened? For one, the wild ending of “28 Years Later” was always going to leave audiences divided. It directly set up the sequel, but it was a strange choice, to be certain. That may have turned off “normies,” even if more hardcore horror fans were interested to see where everything was headed. Beyond that, there was only about a six-month gap between installments after a 17-year wait. That might have been too much, too soon.

Whatever the case, and pretty much no matter what Boyle or Garland say publicly, the lackluster box office put up by “The Bone Temple” is the main reason why “Part III” isn’t already headed in the right direction.

That’s not to say that this trilogy can’t or won’t wrap up in the future. Stranger things have happened. It’s just certainly not happening right now, and there are major barriers in place that are going to complicate matters, even if the principal parties are interested in getting it made behind-the-scenes.

For one, Cillian Murphy is now an Oscar-winner whose services are highly in-demand. His schedule is going to be an issue. That also means wrangling both Danny Boyle and Alex Garland at the same time as Murphy will be all the more difficult. Then there’s the matter of Alife Williams, who played Spike in the first two movies. He’s young, but he’s growing up very fast. “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” left behind big questions unanswered after its cliffhanger, but the implication was that “Part III” is going to be a very direct sequel.

If the third movie isn’t happening soon, Williams is going to grow up, and that could throw a major wrench in the gears. Sure, “Stranger Things” got away with having its kids grow up a lot between seasons, but it was pretty noticeable. It’s not ideal, to say the least.

Netflix is still spending big on movies and TV shows, but the days of streamers having pockets so deep that nothing is too expensive are gone. Still, just about the only way this sequel could still happen at this point is if Sony and/or the filmmakers can convince a streamer like Netflix to partner up. If Boyle and Garland don’t want to go the streaming route? Well, then that cliffhanger may well be left dangling indefinitely, if not forever.

You can grab “28 Years Later” on 4K, Blu-ray, or DVD from Amazon.