It’s been almost two decades since Danny Boyle’s Rage virus decimated the streets of London and its surrounding boroughs, but fans have been quietly holding out hope that he’d one day return to the franchise he helped birth back in 2002 with 28 Days Later.
Following a less-than-stellar sequel that Boyle didn’t direct – that responsibility fell to Juan Carlos Fresnadillo – the series was said to be making a comeback via the long-gestating third installment, 28 Months Later, though it’s been some time since we’ve had any substantial updates on it. As such, many suspect that the project is dead.
That’s only been made even more clear by Alex Garland, who wrote the first film and offered a brief status report on the sequel via a Reddit AMA session. When asked if we could still expect to see it happen, he said that he doubts it’ll ever get off the ground. And, given that 28 Weeks Later arrived back in 2007, he’s probably right. A lot of time has passed since then and if there’s been no tangible progress on 28 Months Later by this point, a return to the franchise is probably off the table.
The 28 duology is the scariest and most satisfying pair of zombie thrillers this side of George Romero, so this news is certainly upsetting to hear. Especially since both Garland and Boyle have expressed interest in making another film in the past, with the former even saying he had some interesting ideas for where the story could go.
Sure, Weeks Later may have been a bit underwhelming, but it was still a solid, well made piece of work, and Days remains as one of the genre’s finest efforts. If the original team got back together for a third installment, we’re pretty sure the results would be satisfying. I suppose it’s at least somewhat reassuring that Garland hasn’t ruled things out completely, but it certainly doesn’t sound like we’ll ever get to see what they had planned for us with 28 Months Later, and that’s a damn shame.
