The Bone Temple Bombed — Is 28 Years Later 3 Still Happening?

After The Bone Temple’s box office stumble and a muddled Sony ad push, the future of 28 Years Later is hanging by a thread.

Sony’s 28 Years Later saga just took a hard left. The studio’s new sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, is now in theaters and on digital, and the marketing is shouting one very specific promise. Which, depending on how closely you’ve been following this franchise, is either wildly exciting or weirdly confusing.

'Cancel your plans. Grab your snacks. Gather to witness the ending people have been waiting 28 years for.'

'Witness the ending' is doing a lot of work there, especially when a third film has been in active development with Cillian Murphy in talks to return as Jim from Danny Boyle’s 2002 original. So is this actually the finish line, or did Sony just reframe the conversation after The Bone Temple stumbled?

So... is this the end?

The messaging suggests a full-stop finale right now. But here’s the curveball: The Bone Temple (directed by Nia DaCosta) tees up more story. As a late-film surprise, Cillian Murphy’s Jim shows up, clearly pointing toward a final chapter that loops back to his journey. It’s a clean, deliberate setup for a trilogy capper... which makes that 'ending' line a head-scratcher.

The Bone Temple didn’t catch fire at the box office

The movie pulled in $56.9 million worldwide on a $63 million production budget. Not great. The film leans into existential and philosophical questions about life after mass extinction and slows the action way down. That’s bold; it also didn’t click with casual audiences the way a lean-and-mean outbreak thriller might have.

Where the third movie stands

On paper, there’s still a plan: a third and final film, with Boyle aiming to bring it to theaters and Murphy in the mix. In practice, The Bone Temple’s performance complicates everything. If the studio decides the appetite isn’t there, that cliffhanger cameo suddenly looks like a dangling thread.

Streaming wild card: Netflix

Netflix is circling the franchise. Boyle wants a proper theatrical rollout; Netflix famously does not love long theatrical windows and would likely cap it at something like a couple of weeks before moving to streaming. Not ideal for a director-driven finale, but given the underperformance, it might be the cleanest way to actually get the film made.

What happens next (and why the messaging is so strange)

The ad campaign selling The Bone Temple as 'the ending' feels like a pivot — an attempt to get butts in seats now instead of banking on a next chapter that isn’t locked. Meanwhile, the movie itself plants a flag for exactly that next chapter. These two ideas do not match, which is why fans are raising eyebrows.

• Sony presses ahead theatrically with Boyle’s finale, leaning on Murphy’s return and wrapping Jim’s story on the big screen.
• Netflix steps in, bankrolls the last movie, and gives it a short theatrical window before streaming.
• Worst case: neither happens, and The Bone Temple’s cliffhanger remains a cliffhanger.

For what it’s worth, DaCosta swinging for a more philosophical zombie movie is the kind of choice I want from a decades-spanning franchise. The business side might be messy, but the creative ambition is clear. If this is truly the 'ending' we were promised, it’s an odd way to sell it. If it’s not, the ball’s now in Sony’s and Netflix’s court to finish what The Bone Temple deliberately started.