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Director Nia DaCosta is no stranger to helming long-awaited horror sequels, having teamed up with Oscar winner Jordan Peele for 2021's Candyman, which takes place almost three decades after the events of its original. The filmmaker tackles a similar-length gap with her upcoming movie 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple – but with the unique challenge of picking up exactly where Danny Boyle's predecessor left off.
So much so, in fact, that she was responsible for tapping Jack O'Connell to play blond-bobbed villain Jimmy Crystal, whose cult is introduced in the very last scene of the critically acclaimed 28 Years Later.
"The difficulties were only practical in terms of, like, me shooting three weeks after Danny wrapped and there was some overlap of characters and location. So it was just making sure I had enough time and enough input into what would be started in his film," DaCosta explains to GamesRadar+. "For example, the Jimmies are mostly in my film so I had to cast those guys with enough time for him to shoot and all those sorts of things. But that wasn't even difficult, it's just filmmaking."
Having chosen not to return to his father on Holy Island, the second chapter sees Spike (Alfie Williams) quickly learn that zombies aren't the only things you need to be fearful of on the apocalyptic British mainland. Elsewhere, Ralph Fiennes' Dr. Ian Kelson forms an unlikely bond with infected alpha Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry), which could have world-changing consequences.
"I'm a huge 20 Days Later super fan; I could probably say every line, I know every scene and so I feel so protective of the legacy," says DaCosta. "To be invited into that world by Alex and Danny was really special. Alex wrote both scripts and he's an amazing writer, so I'm in great hands. I don't have to worry. I had a couple of thoughts, and, you know, we did, like, a little pass together. But it was great where it was, but they really let me do my thing and really appreciated what I did. It was such a wonderful relationship."
DaCosta previously shared in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that she was "able to let my freak flag fly" on Bone Temple and that it's "very different" to Boyle's 28 Years Later. With that, fans of the franchise are gearing themselves up for another boundary-pushing flick.
"I think it's really important, and that's been important to me throughout my career," DaCosta, whose new Prime Video drama Hedda hits US theaters today (October 22), notes. "I have been lucky enough to make all sorts of films and every one of them had big swings in their own way, you know? Relative to whatever I was making. It's not that I'm trying to, like, swing for the fences or prove something. It's just that that's fun, it's exciting to find something new. And I think curiosity is so much of what drives what we do. From curiosity comes big swings and that's how I like to create."
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple releases on January 16, 2026. For more, check out our list of the best horror movies of all time, or our guide to some of the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.
