Despite the critical and commercial success of both 28 Months Later seems stuck in purgatory. Released in 2003, 28 Days Later - from director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland - served to reinvent the zombie sub-genre for a new generation, albeit while not actually being about zombies. Still, those infected by the Rage Virus were similar enough to the undead that the zombie films immediately following 28 Days Later decided to lift multiple aspects of it.
This was especially true of how the infected in 28 Days Later didn't shamble along, instead running at full speed at their victims with murderous intent. Dawn of the Dead remake, much to the chagrin of original director George Romero. Not to be outdone, 28 Days Later would get its own official continuation in 2007's 28 Weeks Later, which ended up being pretty good, if not as good as the first. Notably, Boyle and Garland didn't return on the creative side.
Still, 28 Weeks Later was another big hit, and fans naturally assumed a third installment in the franchise would eventually emerge. Yet, it's now been 13 years, and the fabled 28 Months Later still appears to be no closer to actually materializing.
28 Months Later: Why The Third Movie Will Probably Never Happen
The idea of making 28 Months Later was first floated publicly not too long after 28 Weeks Later proved successful. In July 2007, Danny Boyle said he had a story concept that he thought would work really well for a threequel. Then, nothing happened. In October 2010, Alex Garland was asked about 28 Months Later, and suggested that the follow-up was being held up by a rights dispute among people involved with the original movie. A few months later, Boyle again mentioned having a "good idea" for the threequel, but said he wasn't done thinking about it. By 2013, Boyle AGAIN played up the possibility of 28 Months Later, once again insisting he had an idea for it, but not revealing what that idea was.
In early 2015, Garland said that he had just started "seriously" discussing 28 Months Later, and even a possible fourth film with Boyle, which was nothing but frustrating to those who'd already been reading teases of the project for eight years at that point. Of course, nothing progressed from there, and during a 2018 Reddit AMA session, Garland expressed doubts that 28 Months Later would ever come to fruition. That made it all the weirder when in the summer of 2019, Boyle said that he and Garland had just met to formulate plans for the threequel. Since that time, the usual pattern held firm, with not a peep about the project since.
Since 2007, Boyle has directed seven feature films, including a sequel to his prior film Trainspotting. Garland has written three films and directed two in the same time period. While one could argue this frequency of work is what's holding 28 Months Later back, both have enough clout in Hollywood at this point that if they really wanted to make the film, they most likely could. Barring further rights issues, which haven't been broached publicly in quite some time, there's no logical reason that 28 Months Later still only exists as an idea. This suggests that while Boyle and Garland enjoy talking about the prospect, they'll probably never actually get around to making it, as they continue to get wrapped up in other work. It's likely that the Rage Virus will never see another big screen outbreak, at least with its creators at the helm.
