Sony Pictures isn’t wasting any time.
The studio on Thursday announced it will open 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple in theaters on Jan. 16, 2026, the beginning of the long Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. The movie is the second installment in Danny Boyle and Alex Garland‘s planned zombie apocalypse trilogy.
Earlier this month, Sony released its first teaser trailer for 28 Years Later, the long-awaited sequel to the cult classic 28 Days Later which will hit theaters on June 20, 2025. Boyle directed that film, which was released by 20th Century Fox in 2002.
This time, Nia DaCosta has directing duties, with Boyle and Garland reteaming to write the scripts. The two upcoming films were shot back-to-back.
In 28 Years Later, Cillian Murphy — who won the Oscar for best actor this year for his performance in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer — reprises his role as a survivor from 2002 film and stars alongside Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Erin Kellyman and Edvin Ryding.
The Bone Temple announcement came days after Sony released its first teaser trailer for 28 Years Later, which quickly became one of the most viewed spots for a horror film in recent memory. The clip showed a brief, but bloody, run-through of what happened 10,228 days earlier, as a zombie infestation overruns an unsuspecting U.K. It then zeroes in on a remote island of survivors who have seemingly regressed to a more simple society. As to any further details, such as Murphy’s exact role, the studio remains cryptic.
The film’s official description states, “Sometime after the events of 28 Weeks Later, the Rage Virus has returned, and a group of survivors must survive in a world ravaged by hordes of the infected.”
Boyle and Garland are producing the movies alongside Andrew Macdonald, Peter Rice and Bernard Bellew. Murphy is executive producing.
