Summary:
- Cillian Murphy is returning for “28 Years Later,” with Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman hinting at a surprising and significant role for him.
- The film, directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland, will kick off a new trilogy.
- Rothman called it “Danny at his best.” Murphy’s return is a first for the franchise and could finally resolve the cliffhanger from the original movie.
After being absent from the previous movie, Cillian Murphy is officially set to return for “28 Years Later.” Murphy originally starred in the franchise-starter “28 Days Later” as Jim, a bike courier who awakens from a coma to find the world devastated by the rage virus epidemic.
Teaming up with other survivors, he navigates the collapse. This role marked Murphy’s breakout performance and led to the film’s success, spawning a sequel, “28 Weeks Later,” released five years later. Now, the third installment is about to begin production, with Danny Boyle returning as director.
In a recent interview with Deadline at Cannes, Sony Motion Pictures Group chairman Tom Rothman confirmed Murphy’s return as Jim in “28 Years Later.” While Rothman didn’t reveal many details, he teased that Jim’s return would be “in a surprising way” and hinted at a larger role for Murphy in the planned trilogy.
Rothman shared: “Yes, but in a surprising way and in a way that grows, let me put it that way. This is Danny at his best, combined with a very commercial genre, like we had with Edgar Wright and ‘Baby Driver.’
Murphy’s return marks a franchise first, as no character from the original has appeared in subsequent films. 28 Weeks Later” featured an entirely new cast, including Imogen Poots, Rose Byrne, Robert Carlyle, and Jeremy Renner, due to the original stars’ commitments elsewhere. With Murphy’s current popularity following his Oscar-winning performance in “Oppenheimer,” his return is sure to excite fans.
Murphy’s return also opens the possibility of resolving the cliffhanger ending of “28 Days Later.” The 2002 film ended with Jim, Selena (Naomie Harris), and Hannah (Megan Burns) signaling a Finnish fighter jet from a remote cabin, but their fates were left ambiguous, especially after the Europe-wide outbreak depicted in “28 Weeks Later.
With Rothman’s hint that Murphy’s role will “grow,” it seems likely that his character will be central to Boyle and writer Alex Garland‘s plans for the new trilogy. As of now, there’s no confirmation on whether Harris or Burns will return. Nonetheless, Rothman’s assurance that this film will showcase “Danny at his best” has heightened anticipation for “28 Years Later.”
