Filmmaker Danny Boyle is on top of the world right now with the upcoming release of his long-gestating follow-up to “28 Days Later,” “28 Years Later.” During a recent interview, he dedicated some time to discussing another beloved film, “Sunshine.” He revealed that frequent collaborator Alex Garland outlined the movie to be a trilogy.
“Sunshine”
“Sunshine” takes place in 2057 and centers around a team of international astronauts who are sent on a dangerous mission to reignite the dying Sun with a nuclear fission bomb. The 2007 film was one of the main reasons that Boyle did not direct “28 Weeks Later.” While fans were bummed not to see him back, “Sunshine” quickly developed its own fan base.
But as we all know, audience praise doesn’t always mean ticket sales. “The movie did no business at all,” Boyle told Collider.
“Look, I love the film. I really love the film,” he said. “Some of that film, I just think, “wow, did I do that?” It’s like, yeah you did! My daughter watched it a few years ago. I remember watching it, I was in the kitchen, but I’m watching bits of it, and I’m like, “oh, that’s quite good.” Because you get infected… not to make a pun…”
Sadly, an artist loving a piece of work that the general public glossed over is a tale as old as time. “there are many films I’ve made people don’t think this about — but Sunshine is one they really, genuinely think about and really love the film,” Boyle explained.
There Could Have Been More “Sunshine“
“So, originally, when we were doing it, Alex wrote two other parts. It was supposed to be a trilogy,” Boyle revealed. “Yeah. I mean, he only wrote an outline.”
When pressed for how a sequel could even be possible given the film’s ending, “It was a planetary trilogy. It was to do with the sun itself, with two other stories. What’s interesting is Alex has a natural instinct as a storyteller to want to tell these expanding stories, and that is why 28 Years Later wound up as a trilogy.”
Boyle refused to give away too much more about where the trilogy would have gone. Partially because it had been so long, and his memory was foggy. But also to allow Alex Garland the freedom to use the idea in another project if need be.
“It’s kind of Elon Musk scale, even though he’s lost a lot of credibility. But it was interplanetary stuff, it had more to do with that,” he said after some probing. “No, there’s no rich man in it. But the idea of looking outside and moving.”
“28 Years Later” & “Bone Temple”
Of course, Boyle also talked about the upcoming films “28 Years Later” and “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.” The latter is being directed by Nia DaCosta (“Candyman”) from a script by Garland.
For clarification, while “28 Years Later” is the third entry into the franchise, it kicks off a whole new trilogy with a third film planned if the movies mentioned above do well. Because of this, Boyle often refers to DaCosta’s “Bone Temple” as the “second film” when it is technically the 4th in the franchise.
“What Alex and I decided to do was make an original film. But it’s a story influenced by 28 Days Later. But it does not follow what happened in 28 Weeks Later, where the virus got into Europe,” Boyle explains about his word choice. “For story reasons, we suggested that Europe had driven the virus back across the channel. Then they could isolate the island of Britain and let it die out.”
“There’s a story arc across all three films,” said Boyle about the films. “The principle of this is what we sold to Sony. And they immediately said, “Don’t say it’s a trilogy.” We said, no, we are going to say it’s a trilogy. Because it is! We’re not going to lie to people! Not all the characters run through all three films, but some of them do. There’s a character in this one, played by Ralph Fiennes, who is a massive part of the second film. Cillian Murphy is an element in the second film and a very dominant element in the third film.”
Given all the hullabaloo over Murphy not being in “28 Years Later,” Boyle did clarify that the actor will be in “Bone Temple” “A bit. A bit.”
“28 Years Later” hits theaters nationwide on June 20th. “28 Years Later: Bone Temple” is slated for a January 16th, 2026 release.
