I was already confident that Nia DaCosta was a great choice to direct the sequel to 28 Years Later, but her recent comments about the original movie just confirmed it. After its jaw-dropping trailer went viral (no pun intended), 28 Years Later quickly became one of the most highly anticipated films of 2025. It’s coming to theaters on June 20, 2025, so the promotional tour is in full swing. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, the director and screenwriter behind 28 Days Later, are back on board the new sequel, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

28 Years Later is planned as the first installment of a new trilogy — and the second installment, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, is already in the works for a theatrical release on January 16, 2026. While Garland is penning the scripts for all three movies and Boyle plans to return to direct the third and final chapter, The Bone Temple is being entrusted to a different filmmaker. The second movie is in the hands of DaCosta, director of The Marvels. And based on her latest comments, I’m sure she’ll knock it out of the park.

Nia DaCosta Watching 28 Days Later Repeatedly Growing Up Makes Me Even More Confident She’s Perfect For The Bone Temple

DaCosta Is An Obsessive Fan Of Danny Boyle’s Original Movie

At CinemaCon, when she was discussing her work on 28 Years Later’s sequel, DaCosta revealed that she’s an obsessive fan of Boyle’s original zombie thriller. She said, “Growing up, 28 Days Later is one of 12 DVDs I had in my house and I watched it over and over again, and fell in love… and I’m trying to bring that feeling to The Bone Temple.” DaCosta was born in 1989, so she was a teenager when 28 Days Later came out, and it sounds like it was a formative influence on her as both a filmmaker and a film fan.

Nia DaCosta’s Previous Horror Movie Is Another Reason To Be Excited About Her 28 Years Later Sequel

DaCosta Nailed The Candyman Reboot

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple won’t be DaCosta’s first foray into the horror genre, and her previous horror movie is a very promising sign for her 28 Years Later sequel. In 2021, DaCosta directed a reboot of the Candyman franchise that acted as both a continuation of the original series and a modern update of the story. DaCosta’s Candyman is a satisfying sequel to the original, but it’s also a great supernatural slasher in its own right. It doesn’t just retread what came before; it takes the racial allegory of the original movie into the contemporary climate.

DaCosta’s reboot built on Candyman’s backstory while also rounding out interesting new protagonists. It offered up a series of delightfully grisly thrills without losing sight of the poignant social commentary that made Candyman so iconic in the first place. DaCosta’s Candyman movie proves she can put her own fresh stamp on an existing horror franchise while still recapturing what audiences love about it, and that’s exactly what the 28 Years Later sequel needs.