The debut trailer for 28 Years Later is out in the wild, showing a first look at the long-awaited continuation of Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s zombie apocalypse movie franchise.
28 Years Later, due out on June 20, 2025, is as the title suggests set almost three decades after the virus was first unleashed upon the world. Here’s the official synopsis:
Academy Award-winning director Danny Boyle and Academy Award-nominated writer Alex Garland reunite for 28 Years Later, a terrifying new story set in the world created by 28 Days Later. It’s been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily-defended causeway. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.
The trailer kicks off with an unnerving look at a group of children who are watching British kids TV show the Teletubbies (it doesn't look like it ends well for them, sadly). We then fast forward to 28 years later, and a small town of people who live on an island and are governed by community roles. Clearly, all is not as it seems.
Kraven the Hunter star Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with a bow and arrow as a weapon, alongside Alfie Williams’ teen character, set out from the island on some unknown mission. As you’d expect, things do not go to plan, and the pair take refuge in a house that includes what looks like a zombie strung up and gagged.
There are all sorts of creepy shots in the trailer, suggesting humans are as much a danger as the zombies. There’s what looks like mutated zombies, and maybe even mutated humans. The trailer is set against a rather disturbing performance of Boots, the 1903 poem by English author Rudyard Kipling that imagines the repetitive thoughts of a marching British Army infantryman.
Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy is confirmed to return for 28 Years Later, but, as one Sony executive has teased, “in a surprising way and in a way that grows.” There is one shot in the trailer that shows a zombie that looks an awful lot like Murphy. Could this be how he reprises his role?
28 Days Later was one of his breakout roles back in 2002, where Murphy played Jim, a bicycle courier who woke from a coma to find himself in a post-apocalyptic London after an aggression-inducing virus led to the breakdown of society. Murphy didn't return for 2007's 28 Weeks Later, which followed a different cast of characters.
We first learned that 28 Years Later was officially greenlit back in January alongside plans for the revival to be a trilogy. What's more, IGN had previously learned that The Marvels and Candyman director Nia DaCosta has been in talks to direct the second movie of the trilogy.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
