Obviously we all know how much time has passed the worlds of 28 Days Later and 28 Years Later. And, if you don’t know, we’ll give you a second to think about it. Yes. It’s been 28 years. And while that’s pretty obvious, a new interview with the director and writer of the upcoming zombie film talks about how the passing of time is crucial to setting everything to come.

28 Years Later opens on June 20 and is the third film in a series originally created by writer Alex Garland (who continues to create Civil War, Ex Machina, etc.) and director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire). After setting aside for 28 Weeks Later, the pair reunited for the first film in a proposed trilogy that took up the zombie outbreak three decades after it began. “It’s a completely different approach,” Boyle said in a new interview with Empire. “It’s about what 28 years gives you.”

What 28 years gives you is stability. on 28 Years Laterthe world deals with zombies. They learn to live with them and make them a part of their lives. The film shows that through the eyes of a small island that has isolated itself from the rest of the country. “It’s a closed and supposed to be very tight-knit community,” Boyle said. “There are very strict defense laws, obviously, to survive long in what is effectively a continuing hostile environment. They’ve created a successful community, as they see it.”

The community, called Holy Island, is only accessible from the mainland by a small road that is only visible for a few hours a day when the tide is low. So, they are relatively safe. But the film is more than that, following a father (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his wife (Jodie Comer) who take their 12-year-old son (Alfie Williams) on a trip to show him the facts of the world. Things don’t go according to plan.

That story will continue in the second film, 28 Years Later: The Bone Templedirected by Nia DaCosta. It has been picked up and the release date is set for January 16, 2026, which means that audiences only have to wait about 28 weeks to see what happens next after 28 Years Later. As for the third film, however, Boyle will direct but only if audiences respond to the first one. “It’s a very ambitious narrative,” Garland told Empire. “Danny and I understand that. We tried to shorten it, but its natural form is like a trilogy.”

As for the star of the original film, and executive producer of this trilogy, Cillian Murphy, he will not appear in the first film. However, that doesn’t mean he won’t show up. “He wasn’t in the first film, but I’m hoping there will be some Jim somewhere down the line,” producer Andrew Macdonald said the Empire. The answer points to long-standing rumors that she will appear in DaCosta’s film.

Together, Boyle and Garland are a formidable team. It’s not THERE to return to the franchise they helped create. That they want it, and want to make it big, gives us a lot of confidence that we’ll see something special in a few months. It all started on June 20.

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