Expanding upon the world created by Danny Boyle and Alex Garland in 28 Years Later – but turning that world on its head – Nia DaCosta directs 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.
In a continuation of the epic story, Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) finds himself in a shocking new relationship – with consequences that could change the world as they know it – and Spike’s (Alfie Williams) encounter with Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) becomes a nightmare he can’t escape. In the world of The Bone Temple, the infected are no longer the greatest threat to survival – the inhumanity of the survivors can be stranger and more terrifying.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple expands upon the extent of the virus’ devastation
As the infection continues to run rampant, the real threat to humanity emerges – humans themselves. As Nia DaCosta takes the directorial reins from Danny Boyle, she infuses the new story with her own elevated, auteur-driven sense of horror and vision for this dystopian world.
Says Danny Boyle, “Nia was the perfect choice to direct The Bone Temple. Alex Garland and I had long been fans of her reimagining of Candyman and recognised that Nia has serious horror chops – and a genuine love for the original 28 Days Later. She honours what fans love about the franchise while making the new film her own, taking the series into even darker, more intense areas.”
Alex Garland, who created this world with Boyle, again serves as the screenwriter
“28 Years Later was a big story, and it couldn’t be told in one film,” he says.
“What connects the two films is that they’re both bonkers, idiosyncratic, and artistically personal works,” DaCosta notes. “When I initially discussed the new film with Danny and Alex, I told them, ‘I’m going to make it my own. I’m not going to try to make ‘a Danny Boyle movie.’ Because that’s impossible to make. Alex’s script was very different from 28 Years Later, so it lends itself to a different approach. I could really put my imprint on it – to let my freak flag fly – and be visually adventurous and matching that with more classical filmmaking.”
“From the start, Nia told Danny and me that the camera would not move in the way Danny moves the camera, and it would not be edited in the way Danny cuts,” Garland confirms. “That was very impressive to Danny because most people’s instinct would have been to duplicate his style, and Nia didn’t do that. That was impressive and smart. Her film is quite different, and that’s a good thing.”
“We have Jimmy Crystal and his followers and their world, and Kelson and his world,” DaCosta explains. “Spike moves between the two, so it was interesting to have a different filmmaking style for each character.”
DaCosta’s imprint included deepening the emotional journeys of Kelson, Spike, and Jimmy Crystal, while uncovering more about the infected – and the world-changing possibilities of trying to undo the plague.
Kelson And Samson Evolve
“The Bone Temple reminds us that everything seems hopeless,” DaCosta says. “But at the same time, if you’re still alive, you can accomplish something meaningful with your life. For Dr. Ian Kelson, it’s building this monument to death, which inversely, is what gives him the energy to live.”
With three-time Oscar nominee Ralph Fiennes taking on an even larger role, as the complex physician turned Bone Temple creator/builder/curator/caretaker, the film features additional backstory on Kelson and more of his relationship with Samson, the mammoth Alpha he regularly sedates but avoids killing. Their evolving dynamic is a key element of the movie. “We’ve seen Samson do monstrous things,” DaCosta notes, “but Kelson sees a lot more to him.”
Fiennes says Kelson’s relationship with Samson stems from an intense moment from 28 Years Later, when an infected woman gave birth to a baby who was not infected. “The new film explores the theme of innate humanity – is it still alive in the soul, in the heart, and in the mind of an infected person?” he asks. “Are they completely corrupted? Or is there the possibility of something human still there?”
Kelson had created a sense of purpose in building his monument to the dead – The Bone Temple. “But Samson ultimately changes the trajectory of Kelson’s life even more, and in a way that’s beautiful and incredibly important,” hints DaCosta. “Not just for Kelson, but for what it means for the world at large.”
Fiennes details the history between Kelson and the Alpha. “In 28 Years Later, we met this musclebound infected human, Samson, who is violent and dangerous. When encountering Samson, Kelson would blow morphine-tinged darts into him, which would tranquilize Samson.”
That tranquility, says DaCosta, is transformative for the monstrous figure. “The pleasurable experience afforded by the morphine darts attaches Samson to Kelson because Samson realizes that Kelson is giving him peace for these small moments. Kelson begins to understand this and fosters a relationship that grows throughout the film, and Samson begins to transform in ways that are unexpected and exciting.
“The dynamic is fueled by Kelson’s loneliness, as well as his curiosity,” she continues. “It’s almost like one couldn’t exist without the other, and it’s a very potent combination. For Samson, the morphine brings them together in a way that’s initially terrifying – we’ve seen him rip people’s heads off! As the complexity of Samson’s thoughts and cognitive processes becomes apparent, Kelson recognizes this, leading to the development of a relationship between them.”
Adds Fiennes: “Kelson succeeds in slowly getting this infected Alpha to reveal his humanness.”
When we met Samson, in 28 Years Later, he was a force of nature, capable of incredible speeds and feats of horrific strength. He also possessed an unexpected – at least for an infected – intelligence. But courtesy of Kelson’s morphine-tinged darts, Samson, again embodied by Chi Lewis-Parry, undergoes the beginnings of a stunning transformation that could change the world.
For Lewis-Parry, “Samson represents hope. When we met Samson, he was an apex predator committing monstrously violent acts. The mutation of the virus has had a steroidal effect on some of the infected, including Samson, turning him into a kind of super-infected.”
We learn that Samson, even in his most primordial form, is more aware than the other infected, and holds a higher status. “We understand that he is an intelligent creature and not just a mindless, rage-filled infected creature,” Lewis-Parry continues. “So, we tried to put a purpose behind the violence.”
Samson slowly learns that Kelson wants the best for him – that he wants Samson to heal.
DaCosta credits Lewis-Parry with conveying Samson’s physical, emotional, and intellectual transformation. “Chi’s unique temperament helped us all get through building Samson. The character has a huge journey that affects the way he acts, looks and even moves. It was so beautiful watching him and Ralph and their characters’ relationship develop.”
Spike’s Journey Continues
In 28 Years Later, Kelson had made a very different, but equally significant impact on the character of Spike, a young man who had undergone a transformative rite of passage, from a neophyte warrior belonging to a generation that doesn’t know a time before infection, into a bold and creative protector.
In that film, says Garland, “Spike encountered Kelson, who looked and acted strange, but turned out to be compassionate. Later, Spike meets the Jimmies, who are the opposite of compassionate. He must survive in that world with these very dangerous people, who are different from anyone he’s ever known.”
Alfie Williams, who again takes on the role of Spike, enjoyed bringing additional facets of the character to the new story. Williams’s Spike continues as the franchise’s emotional throughline, as the character navigates the ongoing horrors of the infected, the even more sinister menaces of the people left behind, and the brutal choices they make to survive.
“As we saw in 28 Years Later, Spike was basically a normal kid, living in a very abnormal world,” Williams says. “He loved his mum and dad and just wanted them to be a family like they used to be before she got sick. Spike was desperate to find a way to save her but ultimately did the best he could to protect and then remember her.
“Now, everything has changed for Spike,” Williams continues. “He’s more mature, and he’s out in the world on his own.”
Garland confirms that while, “Spike’s story began as a family story, it has now become a story about becoming an adult.”
Adds DaCosta, “Spike has gone through this hero’s journey but soon finds himself being forced to attach himself to this weird group of people that initially save him. Spike realizes they’re absolutely mad and now he’s trapped with this roaming band of psychos. That’s his next journey: he must figure out how to escape and what to do next.”
This next phase of Spike’s adventure kicks off in a terrifying manner, with the young man, whom we had seen meeting Jimmy Crystal and his cult, the Jimmies, at the end of 28 Years Later, now being forced by the Jimmies to engage in a fight to the death – a twisted kind of initiation to earn his spot in the cult. “Spike is terrified, and about to engage in a knife fight to the death with one of the Jimmies, Jimmy Shite,” Williams explains. “It’s obviously a big moment for him. Spike must stay with the Jimmies because he has no other choice. If he tries to leave, they’ll kill him. Spike must do whatever their leader, Jimmy Crystal, tells him to do.”
Lord Of The Apocalypse
Spike’s journey, then, is closely linked to Jimmy Crystal, the deviant head of a cult of young people whose reign of terror across the countryside surpasses even the horrors of the infected. When we met the character, via a flashback, in the previous film, he was a young boy who suffered what would become endless trauma when he watched his father, a parish priest, willingly become infected.
Now, 28 years later, the violent, sadistic, manipulative, and Satan-worshiping cult leader and his followers embrace a twisted post-outbreak ideology. They exploit society’s collapse to spread fear and gain power, introducing a new kind of evil into the world.
Garland notes that Jimmy’s traumatic experience, as filtered through the mind of a youngster, “has led to some weird belief systems and a very skewed moral compass. So, that is the twisted world and worldview that Spike finds himself having to survive.”
“Jimmy has created this sense of purpose and meaning around a fake relationship with the devil, whom Jimmy believes is his father because of the shock he experienced as a child,” says DaCosta. “So, he’s found a way to survive, which includes these other young people, the Jimmies, who buy into his weird anti-religion, anti-Christ beliefs. Moreover, Jimmy is incredibly charismatic, quite funny, and a camp representation of the corruption of innocence. He’s a completely insane, wounded, and broken person who is also incredibly entertaining, funny, and occasionally generous.”
Jack O’Connell returns as Jimmy, following the character’s brief but unforgettable introduction in 28 Years Later.
NIA DACOSTA (Director) is one of the freshest and most in-demand voices in Hollywood having written and directed projects for stage, film and television.
Up next, DaCosta wrote, directed, and produced Hedda, a reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s famous play “Hedda Gabler”, starring Tessa Thompson as the title character for MGM’s Orion Pictures and Plan B. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2025, and will be released in theaters on October 23, 2025 and on Prime Video on October 29, 2025.
Currently, DaCosta is in post-production on 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, starring Cillian Murphy, Ralph Fiennes, and Jack O’Connell among many others. The film is the fourth installment of the 28 Years Later series and will be released in theaters on January 16, 2026.
Most recently, Nia directed and co-wrote the highly anticipated Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels, making her the first Black woman to direct a Marvel Studios picture and the youngest person to direct a film for the studio. The superhero film, starring Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani, was released in theaters on November 10, 2023.
In 2021, Nia directed and co-wrote the Universal Studios feature film Candyman. Produced by Oscar-winner Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, the film is a contemporary spiritual sequel of the 1992 cult horror classic of the same name, dealing with the power—and perils—of storytelling, while highlighting timely issues of gentrification, racial profiling and race-based violence. Candyman, starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, and Colman Domingo, was released on August 27, 2021 and debuted at #1 at the box office, receiving overwhelming critical acclaim.
Her debut feature, Little Woods, was developed through the Sundance Institute and starred Tessa Thompson and Lily James. The film dealt with real-world topics including access to health care, poverty and criminal justice through the story of two estranged sisters who must work outside the law to better their lives. It premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and was released theatrically by Neon in 2019, earning a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes
In television, she previously directed two episodes of the third season of the Netflix revival, Top Boy. Nia also worked as a writer for the HBO series Industry with U.K.’s Bad Wolf.
Nia received a BFA in Film and Television from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU and a MA in Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She currently resides in London.
ALEX GARLAND’s (Writer, Producer) latest film Warfare, which he co-wrote and directed with Navy SEAL veteran Ray Mendoza, was released April 11, 2025. Garland teamed with A24 on Warfare, as he did on his 2024 film Civil War, starring Kirsten Dunst and Cailee Spaeny.
Garland directed the 2022 horror film Men, the 2018 film Annihilation, and the 2014 film Ex Machina, for which he was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards, as well as three BAFTAs, including Best Original Screenplay. Garland created, wrote, and directed Devs, an eight-part miniseries for FX starring Nick Offerman, which premiered spring 2020.
Most recently, DANNY BOYLE (Producer) directed 28 YEARS LATER, which was released on June 20th, 2025, reprising his role as director of the original film 28 DAYS LATER. Returning again to the franchise, Boyle’s next project will be 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE. Prior to 28 YEARS LATER, Boyle directed the films YESTERDAY, STEVE JOBS, 127 HOURS, and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, one of the few films in motion picture history that swept the Oscars, the BAFTAs, the Golden Globes, PGA and DGA for both Best Picture and Best Director.
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