ScreenRant packed the house at Regal Union Square for an exclusive 28 Years Later fan event in partnership with Sony Pictures and Regal. The event, hosted by ScreenRant’s Liam Crowley, gave fans the longest look yet at the long-awaited sequel. Crowley then welcomed director and executive producer Danny Boyle as well as stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Jodie Comer to the theater for a Q&A. The live interview was followed by a screening of the original 28 Days Later.
Boyle is returning to the franchise’s director’s chair for the first time since the original film hit cinemas in 2002. In the two decades since, he has collected an Academy Award for Best Director (Slumdog Millionaire). Taylor-Johnson and Comer enter this cinematic world fresh off of critically-acclaimed performances in Nosferatu and The Bikeriders, respectively.
Crowley spoke with the trio to discuss the actors’ familiarity with the 28 Days Later franchise, why now was the right time to pursue a sequel, and what’s in store for leading characters Jamie and Isla.
Why Was Now The Right Time For 28 Years Later?
“He started talking about this much bigger idea…”
Concepts for 28 Years Later have been spoken about on and off throughout the 2010s and into the 2020s, but it wasn’t until writer Alex Garland floated the idea of a new trilogy of stories that momentum picked up steam.
“When you make films, it doesn’t matter whether they’re successful or not, they all fade gradually as they should, but some of them occasionally stick. The first one, it just seemed to resonate with people still,” Boyle said. “What Alex and I began talking about was, ‘Should we do something additional to it? Should we add something to it?'”
“Then he started talking about this much bigger idea, about a bigger story that is spread over three films ultimately. Each film would stand independently, but there’d be a bigger tale to tell.”
That bigger tale to tell is largely shrouded in secrecy, but it is known that this particular arc will continue into 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple next January.
Taylor-Johnson & Comer Recall Their First 28 Days Later Experiences
“I felt like I’d never seen anything like it before…”
While the leading stars of 28 Years Later are newcomers to the franchise, they both walk into this world with specific memories tethered to the original.
“I was quite relatively young when it originally came out, so I don’t remember exactly where I was when I saw it, but I always remember how it made me feel,” Comer recalled. “For something to be so original and so heightened and have this element of terror and fear, but ultimately be about human connection and really character focused and incredibly intimate at times, that really struck me. To see our kind of society and London visually in that way. I felt like I’d never seen anything like it before.”
“I remember, at the time, it had a very iconic filmmaking moment of Cillian Murphy walking through the streets of London. It had such a visual impact on you,” Taylor-Johnson added. “I was probably about 11 or 12 at the time when that came out, which was kind of interesting to bring that into this movie because both Isla and Jamie were teenagers at the time of this event. It’s kind of beautiful, how that informs the adult self. It was carrying that sort of trauma into this was so interesting.”
Taylor-Johnson’s allusions to Jamie and Isla are nods to the characters himself and Comer portray.
“I think as you get to know her, as the film progresses, you really get to see her true essence and the relationship that she has with [her son] Spike is really quite beautiful,” Comer teased of Isla’s arc. “What I kind of felt about Isla was that maybe she had a relationship with the island beforehand. Maybe her dad had taken her over there.”
“I’m always drawn to a more complex character,” Taylor-Johnson teased of Jamie’s shades of grey. “Jamie is a product of this new world. He had to adapt, change and survive. The moral grey area that you’re talking about is sort of actually what’s kept them alive for so long. It’s a system that the community have come together and have figured out that really works for them. Now he’s trying to install that in his child, his son, and teach him the way of life to continue this new way of life.”
28 Years Later hits theaters on June 20.
Source: ScreenRant Plus
