As more details emerge about the long-lead sequel 28 Years Later, one of the biggest questions was whether or not recent Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy would be returning to join the cast - and we just got our answer.
In a recent interview with Deadline, Sony Motion Pictures Group chairman Tom Rothman was asked if Murphy would be joining the cast. Previously, it was announced he would be on board as an executive producer, but it was unclear if he'd be reprising his lead role from the original, 28 Days Later.
"Yes, but in a surprising way and in a way that grows, let me put it that way," Rothman answered. "This is (director) Danny (Boyle) at his best, combined with a very commercial genre, like we had with Edgar Wright and Baby Driver. Sometimes when you put a real signature director into a commercial arena, it elevates it."
As Rothman alludes to, that means a reunion between Murphy, Boyle, and co-writer Alex Garland more than two decades after 28 Days Later (it's worth noting, though, that the trio has worked together since then on 2007's Sunshine).
That puts Murphy in the midst of a star-studded cast that also includes Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, it was reported last month. And of course, it also continues the roll that Murphy's been on, having just recently won his first Academy Award for his lead role in Christopher Nolan's hit Oppenheimer.
28 Days Later was one of his breakout roles back in 2002, where he 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, and with plans for the revival of a series 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.
Before that, though, 28 Years Later is slated to hit theaters on June 20, 2025.
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she's not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
