Despite rumors to the contrary, Cillian Murphy is not in 28 Years Later.
That’s according to the movie’s producer, Andrew Macdonald. He told Empire Magazine that while director Danny Boyle wanted Murphy, who starred in the first film in the series, 2002’s 28 Days Later, to return for the new film, it didn’t quite work out this time. However, the door is open for Murphy to appear in one of the additional sequels that are already in the works.
“[On] this, we wanted him to be involved and he wanted to be involved,” Macdonald said. “He is not in the first film, but I’m hoping there will be some Jim somewhere along the line.”
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Murphy was 28 Days Later’s hero Jim, who awakens from a coma in an abandoned London decimated by an viral outbreak that turns people into zombies. He manages to escape the city and survive (although not in most of the movie’s alternate endings, which Boyle initially preferred but eventually ditched in favor of a more upbeat conclusion).
Early reports about 28 Years Later teased that Murphy would appear in some sort of supporting role — and online sleuths speculated one of the striking zombies in the trailer for 28 Years Later was an zombified Murphy. That was not correct, and neither were the rumors about Murphy. 28 Years Later instead stars Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Ralph Fiennes.
28 Years Later is scheduled to open in theaters on June 20. The movie is the first in a planned trilogy of sequels; the next installment, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, has already been shot. So it’s possible Murphy could appear in that film or the subsequent third movie. (“I would hope we can work with him in some way in the future,” Macdonald added.)
