Sony Greenlights Third 28 Years Later Movie With Original Franchise Lead Cillian Murphy in Talks to Return

Big news for zombieheads: Sony is moving forward with a third installment of the 28 Years Later films, with the decision coming over a month before the release of the second installment, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.

According to Deadline, original franchise star Cillian Murphy — who led breakout hit 28 Days Later back in 2002 and reprises that role in Bone Temple — is in talks to come back for the third film as well. Alex Garland, who has written all the franchise entries thus far, is currently working on the third entry, which does not have a title at this point in the process.

As far as a director goes for the next film, nothing is set in stone yet. However, Danny Boyle has been open about wanting to direct the third movie, so there’s a good chance he will. That said, we’ll see when that announcement arrives.

Sony has had the option to make a third 28 Years Later film since it won the rights to the franchise, but waited until now to greenlight it. It appears it wanted to gauge the audience response before proceeding — but by the looks of the recent fan screenings of The Bone Temple, which garnered a huge positive response, it felt confident taking the plunge.

28 Years Later managed to bring in over $150 million worldwide in theaters against a modest production budget, which makes it the highest grossing entry in the franchise as a whole. The first three films — 28 Days Later, 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later, and this summer’s 28 Years Later — of the franchise have made over $300 million worldwide combined.

The next installment, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, is set to arrive in theaters on January 16, 2026.

Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.