The Bone Temple will seemingly play a pivotal role in 28 Years Later's first trailer is the Bone Temple. Standing freely in a British field, the arrangement comprises a central skull pyre surrounded by numerous towers made of assorted human bones.

28 Years Later's Bone Temple is, to say the least, unsettling, and its prominence in the sequel's marketing points toward it holding a deeper significance for Alex Garland's new story - potentially even extending into the next two movies of 28 Years Later story.

28 Years Later Suggests Some Survivors Have Started Worshiping The Dead

Has A Cult Arisen In Honor Of The Rage Virus?

The most plausible explanation for 28 Years Later's Bone Temple is that, after almost three decades of apocalyptic living, some survivors have been driven to the edge of sanity and are now worshiping the dead, the infected, or the virus itself. From trailer footage, it can be assumed that the Bone Temple was carefully designed and constructed by many hands, since no one person could have pulled off such a feat.

The Bone Temple is also clearly not a healthy way to honor those who died. A commemorative statue or plaque is perfectly understandable, but pulling bones from corpses and using them to build a giant monument smacks of characters losing their sanity and embracing the apocalypse a little too eagerly.

28 Years Later's Bone Temple feels distinctly pagan in nature, ripped straight from the folk-horror world of The Wicker Man. Essentially a less hygenic Stonehenge, the purposeful arrangement of the Bone Temple suggests a certain level of devotion from its creators. Those who built it were not just trying to the time with a human LEGO project, they seem consumed by thoughts of the dead.

There are signs of a death cult elsewhere in 28 Years Later's trailer and marketing too. The synopsis teases, "...horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well." Horrors mutating "other survivors" could mean groups of living people developing outlandish belief systems over the past 28 years, potentially resulting in the construction of a Bone Temple. Trailer footage also shows an infected hanging upside down with "JIMMY" carved into its stomach - a sure sign that Britain's population has become somewhat unhinged outside safe communities.

One mysterious character dons a freakish mask with bleeding eyes and an arrow through its head, mirroring a scarecrow shown in an earlier scene - again, not normal behavior. Even more concerning, the masked figure appears to have followers behind them. Finally, one of the characters present at the Bone Temple is the mother played by Jodie Comer, who cradles a baby in her arms. It's a horror movie rule that ritualistic cult-like groups tend to gravitate toward mothers and newborn children, which again suggests the Bone Temple belongs to some devilish presence lurking in the shadows of 28 Years Later.

The Bone Temple Is Part Of 28 Years Later's Religious Symbolism

28 Years Later's Religious Undertones Aren't Hard To Spot

Beyond the Bone Temple alone, 28 Years Later is packed with religious symbolism. There's a cross in the window when a woman gets flung down a flight of stairs near the beginning, infected burst through a church's stained-glass windows in reference to the original 2002 movie, 28 Years Later's island community is located on Holy Island, the trailer includes a graveyard full of cross-shaped graves, the window behind the hanging infected has a cross of light beaming through, and Jodie Comer's character evokes images of the Mother, Mary.

28 Years Later's Christian symbolism is, therefore, not subtle, and could expose a key aspect of the sequel's story: the collapse of faith. After 28 years, perhaps the remnants of humanity have abandoned traditional religions in favor of something darker, mutated by the horrors of the virus. The Bone Temple could represent the ultimate outcome of that process - a new church, of sorts.

28 Years Later's Bone Temple Sets Up The Next Movie's Reported Title

The Bone Temple May Play A Major Role In Sequels

It cannot be ignored that the next movie in the series is reportedly titled 28 Years Later Part II: The Bone Temple (via ComingSoon). It remains unclear whether the title refers to the structure seen in 28 Years Later, but given that temples constructed with human remains are few and far between on the British Isles, one would imagine there is a connection.

The monument to death will sit at the heart of the 28 Years Later trilogy.

Whatever transpires with the Bone Temple in 28 Years Later could, therefore, rumble on into the sequel. Perhaps 28 Years Later will begin by introducing the history and meaning behind the Bone Temple, but the next movie will unpack those plot points more fully. If the Bone Temple was left behind by a new villain group, those bad guys could remain the story's main threat across all three movies in the coming trilogy, which would certainly explain the second movie's title.

Nia DaCosta is attached as Danny Boyle's replacement as the director of 28 Years Later Part II: The Bone Temple.

Either way, 28 Years Later's Bone Temple will not be a fleeting, visually stimulating location merely intended to add cinematic spice. The monument to death will sit at the heart of the 28 Years Later trilogy, defining the future of Danny Boyle and Alex Garland's fictional universe.

28 Years Later's Bone Temple Is Potentially Teasing A Bigger Villain

Is It The Masked Character? Is It Cillian Murphy's Jim? Is It An Architect Gone Rogue?

If an antagonist group built 28 Years Later's Bone Temple, the biggest follow-up question is who leads that group. A cult-like band of survivors wandering around the northern English countryside must surely have a charismatic idol to give them instructions. Curiously, two major actors in the 28 Years Later cast are missing from the trailer completely: Jack O'Connell and Erin Kellyman. One of those could be playing the enemy responsible for the Bone Temple cult.

The mysterious figure in the bleeding-eye mask - a mask O'Connell or Kellyman could be behind - is probably the most likely candidate. The mask itself suggests some level of cult-ish behavior afoot, and it's only a short leap from following a survivor who wears a scary mask to building giant structures out of human bone. Alternatively, 28 Years Later's mysterious "Jimmy" character could be behind the Bone Temple. The name "Jimmy" is seen twice in 28 Years Later's trailer: once beside a message reading, "Behold, he is coming with the clouds," and again on the hanging infected's chest.

At the beginning of 28 Years Later's trailer, a woman seemingly refers to her nephew as "Jimmy." This could, however, be "Jamie," which is reportedly the name of Aaron Taylor-Johnson's character.

Jimmy could be the name of a messiah figure in 28 Years Later - a controversial leader who inspires complete devotion in followers, but has rather grim ideas about what a church service should look like. If an infected has been hung upside down and tortured in Jimmy's name, the same character could certainly be behind the Bone Temple. Of course, it may not be a coincidence that Cillian Murphy's original 28 Days Later character was called Jim. While Jim's story ended happily, losing Selena and Hannah in the intervening 28 years could have sent him down a darker path.

Sources: ComingSoon