Alex Garland talked to IGN to promote his directorial debut, Ex Machina, and they asked him about the possibility of a sequel to 28 Weeks Later.
“We’ve just started talking about it seriously” he explained. “We’ve got an idea. Danny [Boyle] and [producer] Andrew [Macdonald] and I have been having quite serious conversations about it so it is a possibility. It’s complicated. There’s a whole bunch of reasons why it’s complicated, which are boring so I won’t go into, but there’s a possibility.”
I imagine they’re spending their days going “Everyone knows Hawkeye and Moira MacTaggert died in 28 Weeks Later. What this film presupposes is, maybe they didn’t?”
Of course adding a third movie to a franchise and making it a trilogy is incredibly popular these days, and since Boyle is working on his Steve Jobs biopic, he will probably only be producing a third film, not directing it. (Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo helmed 28 Weeks Later.) Boyle has also made his opinion about zombie movies known, so it’s safe to assume the not-undead rage-infected antagonists of the first two films will follow the same zombies-who-run format.
People really like sequels, so I can see a 28 Months Later doing just fine at the box office. Especially since I don’t remember if Idris Elba’s character died at the end of the last film, and he’s like, so hot right now. (And also always.)
“It’s more likely to be 28 Months than 28 Years,” [Garland] revealed. “28 Years gives you one more place to go. 28 Decades is probably taking the piss.”
I welcome a followup to the “28 Units of Time” films, because I don’t find most horror movies entertaining, but crazy bloodthirsty cannibals who can out-sprint everyone scares the piss out of me. Since the concept of a third movie is just in the talks stage, no director is attached, but Garland’s Ex Machina arrives in the U.S. on April 10th. Depending on its reception, I wouldn’t rule him out as a possibility.
