Warning: This article contains spoilers for 28 Years Later.There are multiple characters who are set to return in the upcoming 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. The movie, which was directed by Candyman‘s Nia DaCosta, will be the fourth installment in the horror franchise, which kicked off with 2002’s 28 Days Later and is set on the British Isles, which have been ravaged by the Rage virus.

The movie follows 2025’s 28 Years Later into theaters by less than seven months, debuting on January 16, 2026. Because of this, and the fact that the Years movies are part of a planned trilogy, the stories of both installments will be closely linked.

This means that the upcoming 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple will feature much of the main cast of the 2025 installment. While some characters – including Isla (Jodie Comer) and Erik (Edvin Ryding) – did not survive and thus cannot return outside of flashbacks, quite a few others have already been confirmed to return.

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Chi Lewis-Parry As Samson

He Is An Alpha Infected On A Mission

One unexpected member of the 28 Years Later cast who is set to return is Chi Lewis-Parry (Gladiator II), who played the Alpha Infected known as Samson. Director Danny Boyle, who helmed both the original 2002 movie and 28 Years Later, confirmed the character’s return during a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

In addition to being an Alpha, which means that he has superior strength and intelligence as well as the ability to lead other Infected, Samson is heavily implied to be the father of the uninfected baby that Isla helps birth during a tense train sequence in 28 Years Later.

Samson being the baby’s father would explain why the Infected is so single-mindedly invested in pursuing Isla and her son Spike, who took the baby after its mother was killed by Erik. His seeming obsession with retrieving the baby could potentially make him a huge threat to the isolated island community on Lindisfarne, where the baby is being cared for.

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Aaron Taylor-Johnson As Jamie

He Is Spike’s Father & Isla’s Husband

Business Insider has confirmed that Spike’s father, Jamie, will return. The character was portrayed by two-time BAFTA nominee Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who kicked off 2025 with 28 Years Later after a packed 2024 saw him star in The Fall Guy, Nosferatu, and Kraven the Hunter.

Over the course of the events of 28 Years Later, a rift grew between Jamie and his son as Spike began to doubt whether Jamie truly cared about healing his wife’s illness after seeing him cheating on Isla during a party celebrating their successful excursion onto the mainland.

While Jamie is seen taking care of the uninfected baby 28 days after the events of the movie, not having pursued Spike after he abandoned the safety of their village, it seems highly likely that Jamie’s role in the story of The Bone Temple will be to embark on a mission to find his son.

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Ralph Fiennes as Dr. Ian Kelson

He Is An Eccentric Former Doctor

In the same THR interview where Danny Boyle confirmed Samson’s return in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, he also confirmed that Dr. Ian Kelson will return. Kelson is portrayed by Ralph Fiennes, who is known for playing Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies, in addition to being a three-time Oscar nominee for Schindler’s List, The English Patient, and Conclave.

It seems highly likely that Dr. Kelson will play a major role in the sequel, because the eccentric former country doctor was the creator of the bone temple that gives the movie its тιтle. He has built a tower of skulls surrounded by columns of bones as a tribute to Britain’s ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, both Infected and uninfected alike.

The character has a unique relationship to 28 Years Later‘s Infected. In fact, he is one of the reasons why Samson is still alive to appear in The Bone Temple. Rather than trying to kill the Infected, he merely sedates the ones who come close enough to potentially cause harm, living alongside them in relative peace.

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Alfie Williams As Spike

He Is The Main Character Of 28 Years Later

Business Insider has also confirmed that Spike will return in The Bone Temple. Spike is one of the first feature film roles for young actor Alfie Williams, whose biggest prior credit was playing Ghost Theo in one episode of HBO and BBC One’s His Dark Materials.

Spike’s coming-of-age was the main crux of 28 Years Later, and he is the character who connects all the others, having brought his mother to see Dr. Kelson, hoping that he could cure her of her unknown illness. However, the kindly Kelson instead informs him that her condition is terminal and helps him learn to accept death.

It seems highly likely that The Bone Temple will continue following Spike, who has abandoned his home on the fortified island of Lindisfarne in favor of traveling the mainland by himself. However, the end of the movie implies that he is in grave danger from a character who exists around the edges of the story, Sir Jimmy Crystal.

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Jack O’Connell As Sir Jimmy Crystal

He Is A Mysterious Cult Leader

In the same THR interview where he confirmed the return of Samson and Dr. Kelson, Danny Boyle also revealed that Sir Jimmy Crystal will appear in The Bone Temple. The character is portrayed by Jack O’Connell, who recently played the villainous vampire Remmick in Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. Read Boyle’s full comment from that interview below:

The character you saw at the end of the first film, Jack O’Connell, he’s a major character in the second film, with Ralph Fiennes — and the big Samson guy.

Sir Jimmy Crystal is one of the most mysterious characters from 2025’s 28 Years Later. While he is shown as a child in the movie’s prologue, he doesn’t appear as an adult until the final scene of the movie, when he and his cult of track-suited martial artist followers save Spike from a horde of Infected.

There is evidence of Jimmy’s murderous activities and worshipful following scattered throughout the movie, so the fact that Spike is now under their “protection” will likely place him in immediate peril if he fails to fall in line with the leader’s strange whims, which seem to be partially inspired by his childhood viewing of Teletubbies.

It also seems likely that Sir Jimmy’s gang of Jimmies will return alongside Jack O’Connell. They only appeared briefly alongside their leader at the end of the movie, which would seem to imply that The Bone Temple will explore their characters in more detail.

That group included Jimmy Ink (Erin Kellyman), Jimmy Jones (Maura Bird), Jimmy Jimmy (Robert Rhodes), Jimmima (Emma Laird), Jimmy Snake (Ghazi Al Ruffai), Jimmy Fox (Sam Locke), and Jimmy sнιтe (Connor Newall), though not all of their returns have been explicitly confirmed by an official source.

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Cillian Murphy As Jim

He Is The Franchise’s First Protagonist

The most important returning character that will be appearing in The Bone Temple is Jim, who has not been seen since the ending of 28 Days Later. The character is portrayed by Cillian Murphy, who was an executive producer on 28 Years Later and who recently won an Oscar for playing the тιтle role in 2023’s Oppenheimer.

Danny Boyle told Business Insider that Murphy will appear briefly “at the end” of The Bone Temple. Read his full comments below:

She gets a bit of Cillian at the end. All I can say is you have to wait for Cillian, but hopefully he will help us get the third film financed.

Although Jim, a bicycle courier who woke up from a coma in a London besieged by the Rage virus, was the protagonist of the 2002 movie, he did not appear in either of the two subsequent 28 Days Later movies, nor has he been directly mentioned. It is unknown what has happened to him since that point.

In fact, ahead of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, it has not even been confirmed if he was rescued and taken to continental Europe or if he has been living in Britain the whole time. However, if he was indeed rescued, his reappearance means that he will probably be plunged back into the terror of the Rage virus once again.

Source(s): THR & Business Insider