Later this month, horror fans will finally get their eyes on Danny Boyle’s28 Years Laterin its return to the universe of the Rage Virus as it hits cinemas worldwide. Before the highly anticipated film is shown on the big screen, its director talks about how the film mirrors some elements of our current climate and reveals what the island actually represents.
Written by Alex Garland and directed by Danny Boyle, who also helmedTrainspottingandSlumdog Millionaire,28 Years Laterwill star Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes and Jodie Comer, as fans are once again plunged back into its terrifying world of bloodthirsty infected. Although zombie movies weren’t such a common genre back in 2002 when28 Days Laterwas first released, Boyle’s highly popular universe crafted something so special that the film received a sequel,28 Weeks Later, five years later. Just when most people thought the zombie genre had seen its days due to the market becoming so saturated with brain-rotting walking corpses,28 Years Later’s YouTube trailergained 60.2 million global views in its first 24 hours and later becamethe best horror ticket pre-seller of 2025. Now, with only days to go before the film’s big reveal, all eyes are on Boyle’s next endeavor, but how much of it is based on real-world events? Quite a bit, surprisingly.
28 Years Later Entwines Current Real World Events Without Meaning To
Speaking withComicbook, Danny Boyle andAlex Garland revealed that due to when28 Years Laterwas being developed, current world events had an influence on its storytelling. Although Boyle explained that he didn’t “set out to make a big political movie”, events like what’s happening in Gaza, what the world went through while Covid happened, and Brexit, in terms of politics, seeped into the movie on some scale. Boyle explained that because of how long it takes to make a horror movie, by the time it comes out, things have changed around the world again. “You may focus on individual details around the world and around people’s own experiences on the day. But, you know, six months, a year later, they’ve changed,”
“We didn’t set out to make a big political movie. We set out to make a really compelling story, which owed a little to the original, but stood on its own as a moviegoing experience.”
Boyle said that the island setting in28 Years Latercould be looked at in terms of Brexit and its political circumstances.“The isolation of the island, even though it’s an imposed isolation in our story, and it’s a chosen isolation in the political (sphere).” Boyle particularly notes that he loves the horror genre because viewers can take away so many different elements and experiences, and this will change from person to person. “[Horror] has that flexibility where you can read things into it, and it’s transparent at times to another world, and then it closes again. And that’s beautiful,” said Boyle.
Recently,Garland said thatThe Last of Ushad a big influence on28 Years Later. As well as taking some inspiration from Clickers and Stalkers, Garland’s new story features a child-parent dynamic between Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Spike (Alfie Williams), which is reminiscent of Joel and Ellie’s adventures in the wilderness.28 Years Laterwill be released in theaters on July 22, 2025.
