28 Years Later: Part III is on the back burner, ten months after Sony's reported green light
Danny Boyle says the third film needs financing and is waiting on Alex Garland. In December, Sony was reported to have green-lit it. In between, The Bone Temple made $58.5 million on a $63 million budget.
Ten months ago, 28 Years Later: Part III had a green light. This week its director called it a project on the back burner.
Danny Boyle gave the update at the London Film Festival, where he was asked about the third film in the zombie trilogy he started with Alex Garland. He said he hopes it gets made if the financing can be locked in, and that the pause also comes down to Garland's schedule. Garland is currently working on A24's big-screen adaptation of Elden Ring.
A film that needs financing is not a film that has been green-lit. Both descriptions have been attached to Part III within a year.
The green light came with "no comment"
On December 10, 2025, TheWrap reported that 28 Years Later 3 was "getting the greenlight at Sony", with Cillian Murphy in talks to star and Garland writing the script. TheWrap credited Deadline with breaking the news. The same report carried one line from the studio: Sony had no comment.
That report landed five weeks before the second film opened. Everything that has happened to the franchise since then happened after the green light, not before it.
The second film is what changed
The trilogy was designed as a relay. Boyle directed the first film, and Nia DaCosta directed the second, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. The two were shot back to back. Murphy, who broke out in 28 Days Later in 2002, was set to appear briefly in The Bone Temple ahead of a bigger part in the finale.
Boyle had described the structure as more ambitious than a run of standalone sequels. Each film was meant to finish its own story and then hand over to the next one, with an epilogue built in as a bridge. That design only works if every part gets made. A relay with no third runner is two films that end on a handover.
The box office, per The Numbers:
- 28 Years Later (June 20, 2025): $30.0 million opening weekend, $70.4 million in North America and $151.4 million worldwide on a $60 million production budget. That is 2.5 times its cost.
- 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (January 16, 2026): $12.5 million opening weekend, $25.1 million in North America and $58.5 million worldwide on a $63 million budget. That is 0.9 times its cost.
The sequel cost $3 million more than the original and took $93 million less. It did not earn back its production budget in cinemas worldwide, before a single dollar of marketing is counted.
Boyle did not cite those numbers on stage. He talked about financing and about Garland being busy. Those are the polite reasons. The figures above are the ones any financier will look at first.
Boyle has had a hard year raising money
The festival Q&A was not about zombies. Boyle is in London with Ink, one of the festival's headline galas. James Graham wrote it, and it follows the rise of The Sun in the 1970s under editor Larry Lamb, whom Rupert Murdoch poached from the Daily Mirror in 1969.
Boyle told the audience Ink was very difficult to finance and that nobody explained why they passed. StudioCanal eventually put up the money, though not enough of it, in his telling. His theory is that producer Tessa Ross had already made the company a lot of money with Conclave. Netflix then bought Ink for the US.
His next priority, if he can raise the budget, is a film set in Antarctica. On his own list, that comes ahead of the zombie finale.
What the record shows
- June 2025: 28 Years Later opens to $30.0 million in North America and goes on to $151.4 million worldwide.
- December 2025: TheWrap reports a Sony green light for Part III, with Murphy in talks and Garland writing. Sony declines to comment.
- January 2026: The Bone Temple opens to $12.5 million in North America and finishes at $58.5 million worldwide.
- October 2026: Boyle calls Part III a back-burner project, dependent on financing and on Garland finishing Elden Ring.
- Boyle's next film: the Antarctica project, budget permitting.
- The festival: the 70th BFI London Film Festival runs until October 18.
What is still unknown
- Whether Sony is still in. The studio never confirmed the December report, and Deadline's account of Boyle's remarks carries no comment from it.
- Whether Murphy signed. "In talks" was the status ten months ago. Nothing in this week's coverage says he signed.
- How far along the script is. Garland was writing it in December. He is now making Elden Ring.
- Who would direct. Boyle made the first film, DaCosta the second. Nobody has been named for the third.
The first film cost $60 million and made $151 million. The second cost $63 million and made $58 million. The third now needs someone to pay for it.