Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s post-apocalyptic nightmare is back, as 28 Years Later’s first official trailer has finally been released – but where’s Cillian Murphy?
The third installment in the franchise sees the pair return to their respective roles as director and writer, and Cillian is billed as reprising his role as Jim, but he is noticeably absent from the trailer.
The film is led by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes, who all play major parts in the new footage.
Cillian is also not listed as a cast member in the promotional material – however, the new trailer features a spine-chilling clip of a zombie that looks remarkably like the Oscar-winner…
Although the clip went viral, with fans convinced that the emaciated figure is confirmation that Jim will be back, it has been claimed that newcomer Angus Neill is behind the zombie.
‘Danny told me he’d always had me in mind for the role,’ he told the Guardian, via Variety. ‘So we met up, hit it off, and I agreed to take part.
‘On set he has an extraordinary ability to hypnotize you, and working with him on the film was a very, very intense experience.’
Sony Pictures has yet to confirm the news, while Cillian also has not spoken publicly about his rumoured involvement.
Danny and Alex previously served as executive producers on Juan Carlos Fersnadillo’s 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later, while this new follow-up is promised to be a more faithful tribute to the original beloved film.
The original, an indie breakout hit, saw Cillian star as Jim, a bike courier who wakes up from a coma in an abandoned hospital.
Things quickly intensify and grow steadily more terrifying as Jim ventures out to find a deserted central London before discovering that the whole of the UK has succumbed to an outbreak of the zombie-inducing ‘Rage’ virus.
28 Weeks Later starred the likes of Robert Carlyle and Jeremy Renner and told the story of NATO’s always-doomed attempt to restart society in an otherwise zombie-ravaged Britain.
The prospect of a third film has been bubbling away in the 12 years since, and Danny announced in June that he and Alex, had devised a ‘wonderful idea’ for a new movie.
‘Alex Garland and I have a wonderful idea for the third part,’ he told The Independent. ‘It’s properly good.
‘The original film led to a bit of a resurgence in the zombie drama and it doesn’t reference any of that. It doesn’t feel stale at all.
Fans who spotted the Cillian-lookalike zombie in the trailer were unsure what to think, with many taking to X to express their confusion.
@cinepikk wrote: ‘Is that makeup or VFX ? 😳😲’
@GulEHasnainAli2 posted: ‘Damnnnn, he looks unrecognisable, incredible!!’
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@Apreme04 agreed: ‘Since when he turned into a zombie?!?’
But it remains to be seen if Cillian will appear in the film, and if he does, will it be as an undead corpse instead of as his beloved character?
Metro.co.uk has contacted Sony Pictures for a comment.
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28 Years Later is released on June 20, 2025.
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