Almost two decades on from 28 Weeks Later, 28 Years Later (the first in a trilogy of movies) has hit cinemas today.
When director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland announced the films, some fans wondered what had happened to 28 Months Later.
Given it’s actually almost been 23 years since the release of 2002’s 28 Days Later, presumably going with the larger time jump made sense.
Just as 28 Weeks Later was about post-7/7 paranoia, 28 Years Later is thematically about post-Brexit/COVID Britain and populist English nostalgia.
Yet, as Boyle shared upon the release of 28 Weeks Later, which he only executive-produced, there was once a plan for 28 Months Later.
Fans will remember that 28 Weeks Later concluded with the Rage virus reaching Europe, so 28 Months Later would see a global zombie apocalypse beyond the shores of the UK. However, Garland retconned this at the start of 28 Years Later by having the virus pushed back to Great Britain – a deus ex machina plot hole for the sake of his anti-Brexit isolationist storytelling. Nevertheless, Boyle initially had plans for 28 Months Later to be set outside the UK. Back in 2007, around the release of 28 Weeks Later, the Oscar-winner said on the press tour of his and Garland’s sci-fi thriller starring 28 Days Later’s Cillian Murphy: “I did have this other idea [for 28 Months Later]. I don’t know whether it’ll happen or not…the third idea has more to do with Russia, but that’s all I can say.”
Back in 2015, Garland shared that the film was in development hell and still tentatively titled 28 Months Later. However, post-Brexit/COVID, he wanted to tell a different story and wrote his 28 Years Later trilogy, with the first hitting cinemas today and part 2, The Bone Temple, out in January. Of course, if these three new films are successful, they could always go back and do 28 Months Later as a prequel, perhaps telling the story of how Europe managed to contain the Rage virus.