Everything the unhinged 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple trailer reveals about the new film

I don’t know about you, but until today I’d totally forgotten the wait we have to endure for the sequel to this year’s 28 Years Later was only a matter of half a year. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple releases in January 2026, which is terrifyingly close – and today is the godly day in the calendar where Danny Boyle, Alex Garland and new director for the franchise Nia DaCosta release the trailer into the world. We all remember where we were when the first trailer for 28 Years Later dropped in 2024 – and the world was traumatised by its terrifying visuals and usage of the harrowing Boots poem. Well, the 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple trailer just landed, and here’s what we’ve got in store in the new film because this little preview leaves a LOT to unpack.

Let’s unpack where we were left

Right at the end of 28 Years Later, we see Spike venture off on his solo endeavour after losing his mother (Jodie Comer) and partaking in the bone ritual with Dr Kelson (Ralph Fiennes). On that aforementioned solo jaunt, he came across the much talked about Jack O’Connell character who is modelled directly after Jimmy Savile. He’s even called Sir Jimmy, and seemingly runs a cult who all dress like the convicted and disgraced pedophile and sex offender. It’s of course been very controversial, but we know full well that O’Connell is going to be a major part of the sequel.

The trailer promises violence and chaos

Even greater changes are still to come.

Watch the trailer for #28YearsLater: The Bone Temple – exclusively in movie theatres 1.16.26. pic.twitter.com/ngk8c5ZodY

— 28 Years Later Movie (@28YearsLaterMov) September 3, 2025

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In the trailer, the story is heavily focussed on the interconnecting stories of Dr Kelson with Sir Jimmy and his cult, now involving Spike. It’s unclear if Spike is a willing participant in whatever Sir Jimmy is up to or reluctant and just going along with it so Jimmy doesn’t harm him. We get a brief look at Kelson’s life before the outbreak and we see that Kelson is trying to bond or create some sort of engagement with alpha infected Samson. Aka, hung zombie.

We can also see Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s character, who is the father of Spike and the widow of our dearly departed Jodie Comer, seemingly also off the safety of their survivor island we saw in 28 Years Later to find Spike. The trailer shows that at some point, the Jimmy cult arrive at Kelson’s bone temple. It doesn’t look like it’s going to end happily ever after, and the trailer looks extremely violent.

What have the cast said about 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple as trailer drops? 

Jack O’Connell has promised utter madness, basically. The new film is less about zombie threat, and allegedly more about the violence of nature and how the natural world always takes its course. The film is also said to not have the infected totally as villains, which is an interesting perspective lightly explored in this year’s movie.

“This film is the weird, deranged cousin to 28 Years Later, who you might be a bit ashamed of because they have weird, questionable interests,”, Jack O’Connell recently told Rolling Stone. “We see how much nature is the unstoppable force at the end of the day. Nature prevails. The world will take its natural course with or without humans. But I don’t think the infected are purely antagonists in our film. It definitely will make you consider that.”

Jack O’Connell says Jimmy is very dark and twisted. We saw him at the start of 28 Years Later in the brutal opening scene which was as the infection was breaking out. He told Rolling Stone that we saw “what he bears witness to. That plants an early seed for what he becomes. We’re in an apocalyptic world, and evil and darkness are two of the forces that have been able to still exist, and he revels in them.”

Director Nia DaCosta says “What’s cool about The Bone Temple is we have the Jimmies and their world, and we have Kelson and his world. Spike moves between the two, so it was really fun to be able to have a different style of filming for each character.”

It’s easy to see why 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple went as instantly viral as the first film when the trailer dropped – January can’t come soon enough.

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