Since 28 Years Later couldn’t bring back Jeremy Renner’s doomed sniper Doyle, the third movie parodied him instead. The 28 Days Later movie franchise went dormant for close to two decades following the second movie. 28 Weeks Later involved an effort to repopulate the UK, after the Rage Virus ravaged it in the original film. This plan didn’t go well.

28 Weeks Later’s ending seemed to set up that the virus had hopped over to Paris, but the third film walks back that bleak coda. Instead, 28 Years Later follows a young boy raised in a Britain that’s been overrun by the rage-infected, who discovers dark truths about his family and the world beyond his isolated community.

The third entry is creepy, funny and moving, delivering chills and emotion in unexpected ways. While audiences may have hoped to see him, Cillian Murphy’s Jim doesn’t appear in 28 Years Later. In fact, there are no returning cast from the previous two outings, though parallels can definitely be drawn between new and old characters.

28 Years Later’s Erik Is A Dark Parody Of Jeremy Renner’s Doyle

Certainly, Spike (Alfie Williams) bears comparisons to Jim from the original. Both are naive newcomers to the rage-infected world around them, and they embark on dangerous trips to find some mystical safe zone. The biggest parallels, however, are between the newcomer soldier Erik (Edvin Ryding) and Jeremy Renner’s Doyle.

Both characters are blond-haired soldiers deployed by NATO who are abandoned by their superiors when things turn to hell. They are the last survivors of their unit, and even carry similar ᴀssault rifles. They also meet the other protagonists after saving them from attacks by the infected.

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Despite these surface-level similarities, 28 Years Later’s Erik and Doyle couldn’t be more opposite in terms of personality. Doyle is a kind, compᴀssionate soldier who abandons his post when he spots a chance to save two lost children.

Doyle is so committed to saving these kids that he sacrifices himself, being immolated by flamethrowers while pushing the other survivors to safety. Erik, on the other hand, is a brash, whiny coward. He only rescued Spike and his mother, Isla (Jodie Comer), in hopes they’d lead him to safety, and only really cares for himself.

In defense of the Swedish soldier, he has good reason to be angry and fearful. Erik knows he can never leave England after being accidentally stranded there, but his behavior makes him hard to like. No matter how bleak things got for Doyle, he was always looking ahead and usually had a gag to keep things light.

Alex Garland Wished He Could Have Brought Jeremy Renner Back For 28 Years Later

While talking with ComicBook.com about 28 Years Later, screenwriter Alex Garland revealed the one character he would want to bring back is Doyle. The writer revealed he really liked Renner as a performer and felt he brought a lot to the part.

It’s great engaging [with Renner] just as an actor. I just always really, really like watching him, and I remember him in that film. He was just like a pleasure to have around on set. But I also think what he put on screen was awesome.

Considering Garland wasn’t as creatively involved with 28 Weeks Later, his choice is a surprise. That said, Renner is kind of great in the 2007 sequel, in what amounts to a supporting role. He doesn’t have much screentime, but he still projects a lot of warmth and his shock death hits hard.

Given that the survivors of 28 Years Later are very handy with bows and arrows, and Renner’s own time playing Hawkeye in the MCU, he would have been a natural for the third film. Still, there was no getting around Doyle’s demise in the second entry.

Not only is he fried by flamethrowers, he’s soon enveloped by a nerve gas cloud too. It would have been a bold choice for Garland to handwave Doyle’s very definitive death just to bring Renner back for 28 Years Later. Still, it’s nice to see the character get a little love from the creator of the franchise.

Erik Is One Part Of 28 Years Later’s Clever Subversions

Like Doyle before him, Erik also dies a horrible death in front of the other survivors. Instead of being a noble demise, Erik spends his last moments trying to kill a baby born from an infected woman, and warns that he’ll shoot Spike and Isla if they don’t get out of his way.

Soon after, an Alpha infected yanks Erik outside and pulls his head off. While a movie constantly subverting an audience’s expectations can be irritating if it’s done to show off, Garland’s 28 Years Later script is smart in the way it wrongfoots viewers.

Walking into the sequel, nobody knew that Spike was the protagonist, with the ᴀssumption being that Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Jamie would be the lead. The first act sets up a stressful father-son adventure, but the film then switches gears to Spike taking his ill mother to see a doctor.

Ralph Fiennes’ Dr Kelson is set up to be some kind of demonic Colonel Kurtz-type figure, but when audiences finally meet him, 28 Years Later again toys with expectations. Speaking to that, Erik really feels like a sly parody of Doyle in this regard.

Instead of Spike and Isla meeting a brave, heroic soldier determined to keep them safe, they meet a gun-toting idiot who gets himself killed trying to murder children. 28 Years Later never wants to let viewers know where it’s going, and the result is one of the most thrilling sequels to come along in some time.

Source: ComicBook.com