28 Years Later: The Bone Temple trailer unleashes Ralph Fiennes in terrifying zombie sequel

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple feels both like a continuation and a provocative re-imagining of the infected wasteland world introduced in 28 Days Later. The apocalyptic epic that first appeared on screens over 20 years ago is now set to become even more chilling.

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Directed by Nia DaCosta, the show explores darker themes, blending survival horror with insights into human depravity. With Ralph Fiennes cast as a sinister doctor who transforms death into ritual, and Cillian Murphy’s Jim returning, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple combines nostalgia with chilling new revelations.

The trailer for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple hints at a nightmare ahead

Sony Pictures has just released the first trailer for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. The initial teaser introduces Sir Jimmy Crystal, played by Jack O’Connell, whose gang of acrobatic killers rules over a devastated England. Spike, portrayed by Alfie Williams, finds himself drawn into their chaos. Yet the most striking imagery comes from Ralph Fiennes’ Dr. Ian Kelson, who is shown presiding over skeletal shrines made from the bones of both infected and human victims.

The trailer makes it clear that the infected are no longer the only predators in this universe. The violence caused by the survivors is just as frightening as the rage virus and continues the series’ theme that the most fearsome monster is one of our own creations. Visually, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple combines grotesque spectacle with hauntingly intimate scenes, reminding audiences that in Boyle and Garland’s world, fear is as much psychological as it is visceral.

What did the cast and director tease about 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

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There’s certainly a lot to praise about 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, but what really draws people in is the ensemble cast and their wild characters. Ralph Fiennes shared via Entertainment Weekly:

“I can say that the themes that we touched on in the scene on the train, the moment of labor, the humanity - it is a critical moment in the life of a mother and child. The ultimate human moment is an infected woman who is giving birth to a baby who is not infected. The theme of innate humanity - is it still alive in the soul, in the heart, in the mind of an infected person? Are they completely corrupted? Are they only rabid? Or is there the possibility of something? Something human, it's still there."

Director Nia DaCosta admitted to The Rolling Stone that she would not attempt to replicate Danny Boyle’s aesthetic in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. She added:

“It’s so hard to describe the tone of the movie that I actually won’t even attempt to. But it keeps the same unique, off-the-wall, surprising energy. The thing that connects the two is that they’re both bonkers, idiosyncratic and very artistically personal works."

What will 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple explore?

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The dark mythology established by 28 Days Later and its 2007 sequel, 28 Weeks Later, serves as the foundation for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. The original by Danny Boyle placed viewers in a Britain infected with the rage virus, a pathogen that transformed its hosts into frothing, hyper-violent predators. Cillian Murphy’s Jim woke up from a coma in an empty hospital to find London deserted, its population either infested or infected, with Jim on a harrowing journey through a land stripped of civilization.

28 Weeks Later, directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, expanded the universe to depict American military efforts to repopulate and control London, a delicate operation disrupted when the virus reemerges. The sequel examined the limits of managing chaos, with themes of distrust, the failure of institutional authority, and inherited violence.