When the trailer for 28 Years Later first landed, many horror fans were both curious and confused. The curiosity comes from the trailer, which gave away little to nothing about its narrative. We didn’t even hear the main characters speak to each other but it is still so, so good. The confusion part came from one infected person who pops up briefly in a field. Prior to this trailer, there were reports that Cillian Murphy would return to the franchise as Jim in the 28 Years Later trilogy. But was Cillian Murphy actually that zombie sitting in a field of flowers in 28 Years Later?
The canon would have allowed it. It has been 28 years since we saw him, Selena, and Hannah, after all. It is very, very easy for a person to die, and seeing his undead corpse could be final confirmation that he succumbed to…something. However, we quickly learned that it wasn’t Cillian Murphy at all. Here’s what happened.
Cillian Murphy is not listed on the official poster for 28 Years Later as a cast member, and that’s because Jim isn’t in the movie. But in the film’s trailer, there is a zombie that briefly rises up out of a field full of yellow flowers, and it looks an awful lot like Cillian Murphy. However, British art dealer Angus Neill has now stepped forward to claim that he is the Cillian Murphy-looking zombie in 28 Years Later.
Neill noted to The Guardian newspaper (which we saw via Deadline) that it is he (and not Cillian Murphy) who features in 28 Years Later as the zombie/“Emaciated Infected.” Neill shared, “Danny Boyle told me he’d always had me in mind for the role… So we met up, hit it off, and I agreed to take part. On set he has an extraordinary ability to hypnotise you, and working with him on the film was a very, very intense experience.”
There’s probably no reason for Neill to lie here, although this particular zombie in 28 Years Later does look an awful lot like Cillian Murphy. (Although Angus Neill also looks an awful lot like Cillian Murphy.) You can see a new 28 Years Later image of the Neill zombie below.
Since the trailer, we learned that we won’t see Cillian Murphy until the second 28 Years Later movie, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. And he won’t feature heavily until the third film in the trilogy, which has not yet been greenlit. And so, Cillian Murphy as a zombie Jim isn’t off the table for the trilogy. We just haven’t seen him yet.
For one thing, there’s comic precedent that could bleed over into this film and explain why Jim is a zombie in 28 Years Later. In BOOM! Studios 28 Days Later comic series that follows Selena, Jim is captured and sentenced to execution for all the deaths at Major Henry West’s compound. Hannah goes to live a “normal” life with a new family, so Selena goes off on her own to continue surviving. For another thing, given the amount of excitement about the perceived zombie Jim in the 28 Years Later trailer, perhaps someone in production could have had this idea as well, and the character just hasn’t come up yet in what we’ve seen so far.
Maybe Cillian Murphy’s role in 28 Years Later is simply to appear as a zombie Jim. I’ll find it to be hilarious personally if that’s the case, but that’s just me.
Originally published on December 10, 2024.