‘28 Years Later’ Trailer Drops And Fans Psych Themselves Out Over A Perceived Cillian Murphy Sighting
The internet exploded once again last Tuesday when Sony Pictures released the first trailer for their post-apocalyptic horror film, 28 Years Later. This is the long-awaited sequel to the best-forgotten 28 Weeks Later (2007), and the much-beloved classic 28 Days Later (2002).
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Some fans consider the latter to be the best zombie film this side of Y2K, but then there are the purists who deny its place in that particular subgenre, and dismiss the film as just a bad case of rage rabies.
Regardless of where your loyalty lies, everyone can agree that it was a triumph for acclaimed director, Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours), and writer Alex Garland (Dredd, Ex Machina, Annihilation).
So, when it was announced that they would be returning to their apocalypse for the third entry of the series, there was a little more enthusiasm than most of these legacy sequels currently plaguing cinema. That’s why 8.7 million horror hounds pulled up to get a sneak peek of the upcoming film on YouTube.
Boasting the expectations of an interesting story, cool visuals, a dark atmosphere, and an eerie recording of actor Taylor Holmes reciting the haunting 1903 war poem “Boots” by Rudyard Kipling, this reunion of the two matured filmmakers shows much promise. However, this was all overshadowed when viewers saw that more alumni from the first film would be making a cameo.
No, this desiccated creature isn’t Tommy Lee from 80s Hair band Mötley Crüe, and it’s understandable if anyone reached this conclusion, but most people thought they were getting closure on the fate of everyone’s favorite bike courier, Jim (played by Oscar winner, Cillian Murphy), from 28 Days Later. He and his group were last seen being rescued by a jet pilot at the end of the film, and the next movie focused on a different group of survivors.
The resemblance to the actor is so obvious that it’s unlikely this was done by accident. It was met with both surprise, and levels of fan outrage that hasn’t been seen since David Fincher snuffed Newt and Hicks at the beginning of Alien 3. One could only imagine the firestorm of triggered comments had there been social media in those days, but I digress.
Fortunately, this was immediately debunked by Sony, and the true identity of the zombie has been revealed. It’s newcomer to the business, Angus Neill. First reported by The Guardian, Boyle talent-spotted the art dealer/model, and was fascinated by his gaunt appearance. This led to him casting Neill as a zombie for the film, and what was either a brilliant marketing ploy, or major oversight that managed to work in their favor.
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It’s still unclear what happened to Jim, but the ‘always dependable’ Wikipedia has him slated to appear in the new film, and a supposed sequel called 28 Years Later Part II: The Bone Temple. At this time, Garland is scripting that next film while Boyle turns the director’s chair over to Nia DaCosta (of the Candyman remake and The Marvels). How that will turn out, one can only speculate, but that’s another story for another day.
28 Years Later stars Jodie “Villanelle” Comer, Aaron-Taylor “Quicksilver” Johnson, Ralph “Voldemort” Fiennes, Angus “Tommy Lee” Neill, and quite possibly Cillian “Scarecrow” Murphy. It’s scheduled to be released June 20th of next year in theaters worldwide.
For now, here’s the trailer that caused all of this commotion.
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