28 Years Later will reportedly follow a boy trying to save his dying mother

More than 20 years after its initial release in 2002, we're finally getting a follow-up to the critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic horror film 28 Days Later from director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland. Even better, the upcoming film 28 Years Later is just the start of a new trilogy set in a world inhabited by the terrifying "rage virus." According to star Ralph Fiennes the first two films of the trilogy have already been shot, having filmed back-to-back.

Chatting with IndieWire, Fiennes provided us with some early plot details for the first movie, currently set to release in theaters in June 2025. The Tony Award-winning actor will play a "good" doctor tasked with assisting a young boy and his dying mother.

"Britain is 28 years into this terrible plague of infected people who are violent, rabid humans with a few pockets of uninfected communities. And it centers on a young boy who wants to find a doctor to help his dying mother. He leads his mother through this beautiful northern English terrain. But of course, around them hiding in forests and hills and woods are the infected. But he finds a doctor who is a man we might think is going to be weird and odd, but actually is a force for good."

- Ralph Fiennes

That quote almost feels like a spoiler. Even if Fiennes' character is initially off-putting, now we know he'll eventually be revealed as "a force for good." Mentioning both films have finished shooting already also indicates that he will return for the trilogy's second film, with his status in the third movie pending.

In the film's universe, survivors are still struggling with the rage virus almost three decades after it first appeared in Great Britain. By the end of 28 Weeks Later, the virus had spread across all of continental Europe with containment becoming impossible.

1428 Elm previously reported that Cillian Murphy would reprise his role as the courier, Jim, who we followed in the 2002 film. Sony Motion Pictures Group chairman Tom Rothman described Jim's role in the new movies as "surprising."

The second film in the planned trilogy is titled 28 Days Later Part II: The Bone Temple, to be directed by Nia DaCosta (Candyman) based on a screenplay penned by Boyle and Garland. Besides Fiennes and Murphy, 28 Years Later will also star Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Jack O'Connell.

28 Years Later is currently planned to release theatrically on June 20, 2025.