Cillian Murphy Confirmed Not To Be In 28 Years Later – But Don’t Count Him Out Just Yet

Zombie sequel 28 Years Later is drawing ever closer. It’s set in the same ruined world as 2002’s 28 Days Later, which tells the story of Cillian Murphy’s Jim, a man who awakens from a coma to find the streets of London abandoned and the United Kingdom overrun by zombies.

It was one of Murphy’s first leading roles, and it alerted the world to what a fantastic performer he was. And the movie itself helped revitalize the flagging zombie genre with its terrifyingly fast “rage” zombies.

People have been increasingly keen to find out if Murphy, now an Oscar-winning actor, is in 28 Years Later. They were sure they spotted him in the trailer. There was one brief shot in there of a zombie who bore a strong resemblance to Murphy, and plenty of folks assumed that was where the plot was going – Jim’s back after the ambiguous ending of 28 Days Days, but he’s a zombie now.

Nope! All the speculation turned out to be wrong. Another man came forward to confirm that actually, he was the zombie in the trailer. Model and art dealer Angus Neil told the media that Danny Boyle, the director of both films, had picked him specifically. “Danny told me he’d always had me in mind for the role,” Neill told the Guardian. “So we met up, hit it off, and I agreed to take part.” And that, seemingly, was that. Jim apparently had lived to fight another day, offscreen. But did that mean Murphy wasn’t appearing in the movie at all?

Related: What Is the Significance of 28 Years Later’s Boots Poem?

Well, that seems to be the case at the moment. Producer Andrew Macdonald told Empire magazine yesterday, “We wanted [Murphy] to be involved and he wanted to be involved. He is not in the first film, but I’m hoping there will be some Jim somewhere along the line.” He added that Murphy is actually involved with 28 Years Later as an executive producer, so it’s not like he’s gone anywhere.

But… just one year after 28 Years Later drops in June 2025, we’re getting a sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (you may have spotted some bone structures in the 28 Years Later trailer). Clearly, this is an ongoing story, and it so happens that both halves of it were filmed together. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who will have a big role in 28 Years Later, stated to the Happy Sad Confused podcast that, “we did one and two back to back.”

This leads us to the fields of Ennerdale in the Lake District, where Murphy was spotted filming for a big production back in September 2024. At the time, local news media reported that the project he was working on was “the end of part one of the 28 Years Later horror trilogy and the beginning of part two, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.“

So is Murphy being saved for The Bone Temple? It’s certainly starting to look that way. In the shots from Ennerdale, Murphy definitely looks like he might be in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Surely this has gotta be the “somewhere down the line” Jim appearance Macdonald was talking about.

We know precious little about The Bone Temple at the moment. Pretty much all we’ve got is that Nia DaCosta will be directing and Alex Garland will be writing. Could it finally answer the Jim question that we’ve been hanging onto since 2002?

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