28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple — Release Date: 16 January 2026.
Directed by Nia DaCosta and written by Alex Garland, starring Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Erin Kellyman, and Chi Lewis-Parry. Produced with Danny Boyle serving as a producer, the film is a post-apocalyptic horror feature and the fourth instalment in the 28 Days Later film series.

Set in a Britain still ravaged by the Rage Virus decades after the original outbreak, the story unfolds in the aftermath of 28 Years Later (2025). Society remains fractured, with survival defined by cults, militarised groups, and evolving strains of infection. The narrative follows Spike, a teenager navigating the mainland, whose path leads him into the orbit of Sir Jimmy Crystal, the leader of a violent collective known as the Jimmys. This group operates with ritualistic discipline and theatrical brutality, reflecting a world where order is imposed through spectacle and fear.

Running parallel is the story of Dr Ian Kelson, a former general practitioner who has devoted his post-collapse life to memorialising the dead. His work is shaped by grief, responsibility, and an attempt to preserve humanity’s memory amid collapse. As Kelson forms a new personal bond, the film introduces moral and emotional stakes that extend beyond immediate survival, suggesting consequences that may influence the future of this devastated world.

Nia DaCosta’s direction deliberately diverges from the kinetic visual language associated with earlier entries, favouring a distinct tonal and stylistic approach. The film expands the mythology of the infected, including the presence of Alpha figures, while maintaining the franchise’s focus on human behaviour under extreme conditions. Alex Garland’s screenplay continues to explore themes of violence, belief systems, and the persistence of identity within collapsed social structures.

Filmed back-to-back with its predecessor, The Bone Temple broadens the series’ scope through new factions, locations, and character trajectories. Designed as the middle chapter of a planned trilogy, the film functions both as a continuation and a bridge, deepening the world of 28 Years Later while setting narrative foundations for a subsequent instalment.