This week horror fans got a first trailer for one of the genre’s most anticipated upcoming releases: 28 Years Later, the long-awaited next installment in Danny Boyle and Alex Garland‘s zombie saga. It shows a world still in post-apocalyptic chaos decades after the dead began walking, and it looks suitably terrifying. But one quick shot in the trailer got sharp-eyed viewers talking: was that 28 Days Later star and newly minted Oscar winner Cillian Murphy making a franchise return as Jim… as a near-skeletal corpse?
Turns out it’s not Murphy, who is executive-producing 28 Years Later but has yet to be confirmed for an on-screen appearance (though the cast is stacked even without him: Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O’ Connell, Alfie Williams, and Ralph Fiennes). According to the Guardian, the zombie in the trailer is played by Angus Neill—and the publication even tracked the art dealer and model down to get the full story.
Apparently Neill was “talent-spotted by Boyle, who was much struck by his distinctive looks.” Going by the modeling profile linked by the Guardian, Neill has a naturally gaunt appearance—you thought Murphy had sharp cheekbones?—so you can kind of see how Boyle would look at him and think “zombie!” Though there are obviously prosthetics and special effects make-up involved, Neill does make the perfect canvas for an expressive ghoul. (Sony or anyone involved in creating 28 Years Later has yet to comment on Neill’s role.)
Speaking to the Guardian, Neill said, “Danny 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 hypnotize you, and working with him on the film was a very, very intense experience.”
Here’s the official synopsis for the film: “It’s been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily-defended causeway. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.”
Murphy’s Jim could still appear in 28 Years Later—it would fit into the continuity of the story, and it would be a wonderful link back to the first film, which was released in 2002 and ushered Murphy into stardom. However, with 28 Years Later planned as the first in a new trilogy, there’s plenty of time ahead to see what Jim’s been up to (presumably, a lot of zombie slaying) since we saw him last.
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