Filmmaker Danny Boyle is on top of the world right now with the upcoming release of his long-gestating follow-up to ā28 Days Later,ā ā28 Years Later.ā During a recent interview, he dedicated some time to discussing another beloved film, āSunshine.ā He revealed that frequent collaborator Alex Garland outlined the movie to be a trilogy.

āSunshineā
āSunshineā 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 ā28 Weeks Later.ā While fans were bummed not to see him back, āSunshineā quickly developed its own fan base.
But as we all know, audience praise doesn’t always mean ticket sales. āThe movie did no business at all,ā Boyle told Collider.Ā
āLook, I love the film. I really love the film,ā he said. āSome of that film, I just think, “wow, did I do that?” Itās like, yeah you did! My daughter watched it a few years ago. I remember watching it, I was in the kitchen, but Iām watching bits of it, and Iām like, “oh, thatās quite good.” Because you get infected⦠not to make a punā¦ā
Sadly, an artist loving a piece of work that the general public glossed over is a tale as old as time. āthere are many films Iāve made people donāt think this about ā but Sunshine is one they really, genuinely think about and really love the film,ā Boyle explained.
There Could Have Been More “Sunshine“
āSo, originally, when we were doing it, Alex wrote two other parts. It was supposed to be a trilogy,ā Boyle revealed. āYeah. I mean, he only wrote an outline.ā

When pressed for how a sequel could even be possible given the filmās ending, āIt was a planetary trilogy. It was to do with the sun itself, with two other stories. Whatās 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.ā
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.
āItās kind of Elon Musk scale, even though heās lost a lot of credibility. But it was interplanetary stuff, it had more to do with that,ā he said after some probing. āNo, thereās no rich man in it. But the idea of looking outside and moving.ā

ā28 Years Laterā & āBone Templeā
Of course, Boyle also talked about the upcoming films ā28 Years Laterā and ā28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.ā The latter is being directed by Nia DaCosta (āCandymanā) from a script by Garland.
For clarification, while ā28 Years Laterā 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 DaCostaās āBone Templeā as the āsecond filmā when it is technically the 4th in the franchise.
āWhat Alex and I decided to do was make an original film. But itās a story influenced by 28 Days Later. But it does not follow what happened in 28 Weeks Later, where the virus got into Europe,ā Boyle explains about his word choice. āFor 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.ā

āThereās a story arc across all three films,ā said Boyle about the films. āThe principle of this is what we sold to Sony. And they immediately said, āDonāt say itās a trilogy.ā We said, no, we are going to say itās a trilogy. Because it is! Weāre not going to lie to people! Not all the characters run through all three films, but some of them do. Thereās 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.ā
Given all the hullabaloo over Murphy not being in ā28 Years Later,ā Boyle did clarify that the actor will be in āBone Templeā āA bit. A bit.ā
ā28 Years Laterā hits theaters nationwide on June 20th. ā28 Years Later: Bone Templeā is slated for a January 16th, 2026 release.