The director of Candyman and The Marvels, Nia DaCosta, will direct the second film in Sony’s planned 28 Years Later films.
We’ve waited decades for concrete news regarding more films set in the world of 28 Days Later – and now it’s finally happening, the announcements just keep coming.
In the latest bit of news, Nia DaCosta has been announced as the director of the second film in a planned trilogy of 28 Years Later films. DaCosta is perhaps best known for her work on the recent Marvel movie, The Marvels, but she also helmed the 2021 remake of Candyman and 2019’s Little Woods. She’s also recently shot an adaptation of the Ibsen play, Hedda which stars Tessa Thompson.
While The Marvels is likely the most watched film of her career, the director is keen not to be defined by it. If you recall, she made some comments at the time of the movie’s released (which caused quite a stir), stating: “this is a Kevin Feige production, it’s his movie. So I think you live in that reality, but I tried to go in with the knowledge that some of you is going to take a back seat.”
When we first learned that Sony was backing a new trilogy of films to continue the story of 2002’s 28 Days Later and its worthy 2009 sequel, 28 Weeks Later (directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo), it was particularly exciting to discover that the creative duo behind the first film were both returning. Danny Boyle would be coming back to direct with Alex Garland once again writing the script.
Even better, the original film’s star Cillian Murphy then announced that he was making himself available to return – Deadline, which broke the story about Nia DaCosta’s hiring, says that Murphy will also executive produce the new trilogy. Sony backed the project with around $60m, which to our mind is exactly the kind of sum that means the project should have plenty of creative leeway for Boyle and his collaborators to take some risks with the project.
If that wasn’t exciting enough, reports that Jodie Comer was also set to join the production also added to the growing sense of anticipation. Now, in something of an ironic reversal given the news drought that fans endured for years on end, news is starting to leak through regarding the second film in the planned trilogy, apparently because it might be going into production immediately after the first. The likely plan being to put these films into cinemas (and yes, they are guaranteed to release in cinemas) in pretty rapid succession.
If the plan is for the third film in Sony’s film trilogy to also shoot in quick succession, then who knows – we may have another director to announce in short order. It’s quite surreal to get so much information in a short time after waiting so long but we’re certainly not complaining. We’ll let you know more regarding this project as we hear it.
