Sony Pictures has dropped a new trailer for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, slated for release early next year and directed by Nia DaCosta, teasing a possible cure for the zombie outbreak that has devastated human populations for three decades. It’s the sequel to this year’s critically acclaimed 28 Years Later, the third film in a franchise credited with sparking the 21st-century revival of the zombie genre.
(Some spoilers for the first three films below.)
As previously reported, in 28 Days Later, a highly contagious “Rage Virus” was accidentally released from a lab in Cambridge, England. Those infected turned into violent, mindless monsters who brutally attacked the uninfected—so-called “fast zombies”—and the virus spread rapidly, effectively collapsing society. The sequel, 28 Weeks Later, featured a new cast of characters living on the outskirts of London. But all it takes is one careless person getting infected for the virus to spread uncontrollably again. So naturally, that’s what happened.
And then came 28 Years Later, in which Britain was still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, but one group of survivors lived on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily defended causeway. There were evolved Alpha zombies, including one named Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry). And we met former GP Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), a survivor of the original outbreak who had constructed a large temple out of human bones recovered from crematoriums (hence the film’s title). That film ended with a disillusioned 12-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) losing his mother Isla (Jodie Comer) and returning to the mainland, leaving behind his father, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), and newborn sibling.