Speaking at the Zurich Film Festival while presenting his media drama Ink, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Danny Boyle affirmed that a third installment in the revived 28 Years Later trilogy is firmly in development, promising a central role for franchise star Cillian Murphy.
Boyle confirmed that screenwriter Alex Garland has already delivered a complete script for the third feature. “‘28 Years 3,’ or whatever it ends up being called, will get made because people keep asking about it,” Boyle stated. “Quite when I’m not sure, but there’s a script—a very good script by Alex Garland.” The director added that the project will prominently involve Murphy, who originated the role of Jim in 2002’s 28 Days Later: “[It will have] a lot of Cillian Murphy in it. Whether he’ll take his kit off anymore, that I don’t know. He’s got the Oscar now.”
During his festival masterclass, Boyle also addressed long-standing speculation surrounding the casting of the next James Bond following Daniel Craig’s departure, endorsing his Ink collaborator Jack O’Connell for the mantle of 007. “They should cast Jack O’Connell as Bond,” Boyle noted, praising the actor’s range and ability to project charismatic moral ambiguity across challenging roles.
Reflecting on his own departure from 2021’s No Time to Die over creative differences with Eon Productions’ Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, Boyle expressed confidence in the franchise’s rumored creative direction under Denis Villeneuve, while playfully comparing early preview footage of Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Three with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.
Boyle’s latest feature, Ink, adapts James Graham’s West End and Broadway stage play chronicling the 1969 transformation of British tabloid journalism. The film stars O’Connell as former editor Larry Lamb alongside Guy Pearce as media proprietor Rupert Murdoch.
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