It’s been nearly 28 weeks since the release of this summer’s 28 Years Later, the highly anticipated third movie in the horror franchise that started all the way back in 2003. That film was just the beginning, though, with two follow-ups set to arrive, and the first, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, will be here in just six weeks. Ahead of its global premiere in January, Sony Pictures has released the full trailer for the 2026 sequel, which offers even more of a taste of what fans can expect from the sequel while also making it very clear that we have no clue what comes next.
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28 Years Later may have ended in a way that felt like a full circle moment and a complete story, but some lingering extra pieces in the film that will leave plenty of narrative avenues for the sequel to explore. Case in point, front and center in the trailer for The Bone Temple are those two details: the status of Dr Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) and his titular bone temple, plus the lingering threat of Jack O’Connell as Sir Jimmy Crystal, the mysterious cult leader that appears to have a terrifying backstory. There’s also a larger franchise question being teased, one that could change everything.
28 Years Later Will Get in the Head of the Infected
Throughout the original 28 Years Later it’s clear that Dr. Kelson has spent the almost three decades since the initial infection doing a lot of reflection and studying. Not only has he built the Bone Temple as a monument to the people who have died across the UK, but he’s clearly been studying the infected as well to figure out what makes them tick, what the variants are, and if they can be cured. In the trailer for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Kelson says it out loud: that he believes the infection can be treated. But that’s not all.
As fans know, technically, the people in 28 Years Later are actually infected humans and not undead zombies, meaning they are beholden to the biological concerns of living people and not immune to the elements and hunger in the same way that traditional horror movie zombies are. Kelson also asks a question that no one has ever posed across the 28 Days/Years franchise: “When the infected attack, what do they see?” We get a tease of the answer when the “Alpha” infected from the first film, Samson, attacks an uninfected human and sees his own face as he grapples with them. It’s a unique idea to answer a major detail about the perspective, and one that gives the Rage virus a little more nuance, too.
One more tease appears to be hidden within the trailer for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, as the film may be addressing the origin of Samson. Flashes are seen in the trailer that show what happened to the derailed train from 28 Years Later that has become overgrown in a field, we see a few of the occupants of the train, among them a young boy whose hair does somewhat resemble Samsons. To make the connection even more concrete, the trailer shows us Samson in the present day before immediatley cutting to this new character. 28 Years Later has not shied away from trying to get to the humanity of the infected, and telling us Samson’s story seems like another way to bring that point home.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple will premiere in theaters on January 16, with no official word about when the third film in the trilogy may be released (or even made).
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