After all of the speculation, it’s been confirmed that Cillian Murphy has NOT turned into a zombie and won’t be in the highly anticipated horror-thriller 28 Years Later.
The briefest glimpse of a suspiciously Murphy-esque zombie in the first trailer for the latest episode in the 28 franchise had led fans to speculate that the star of the first movie – 28 Days Later – would be revealed to have met a very bad fate.
In Danny Boyle’s original 2002 horror 28 Days Later, Cillian starred as Jim – who woke up from a coma in a London hospital to find an eerily abandoned London and had to navigate a zombie infested, post apocalyptic England.
Original director Boyle and writer Alex Garland are back on board for the long-delayed ‘threequel’ and teased fans with a brief glimpse in the trailer of a undead man with a suspiciously Peaky Blinder hairstyle and Murphy’s trademark chiselled cheekbones.
However, producer Andrew McDonald has now told Empire Magazine that Murphy will not be in the new movie – or at least, not in the first movie in the planned new trilogy.
McDonald told the movie-fan magainze that they “wanted him to be involved and he wanted to be involved. He is not in the first film, but I’m hoping there will be some Jim somewhere along the line”.
There is still a big role to play for the Cork-man – he’s involved as an executive producer in 28 Years Later. The second part of the trilogy, 28 Days Later: The Bone Temple, is due to hit cinemas in 2026 while a third is planned to go into production later this year.
Danny Boyle admitted that he had been warned that that sight of ‘Zombie Murphy’ in the trailer would confuse fans, telling Empire: “I showed my girlfriend the trailer and she said, ‘People will think that’s Cillian”.
“I said, ‘Don’t be silly.’ I ignored her. So I’ve eaten a bit of humble pie since.”
28 Years Later is the cover story on the latest edition of Empire, with interviews with Danny Boyle, Alex Garland, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes.