18-Year-Old Zombie Movie With Jeremy Renner & Idris Elba Is Coming to

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‘That Wouldn’t Have Worked’: Why 28 Days Later’s Writer & Director Sat Out 28 Weeks Later Before Franchise Return 28 Weeks Later Led To More Sequels Why 28 Weeks Later Is an Underappreciated Horror Gem 28 Weeks Later 28 Years Later

A classic zombie sequel featuring acclaimed actors Jeremy Renner and Idris Elba is heading to a new streaming home. The 2007 post-apocalyptic blockbuster, 28 Weeks Later, premieres on Hulu soon.

Disney-owned Hulu confirmed that 28 Weeks Later will debut on its platform on June 1. The film is also available to stream via Disney+ and can be rented or purchased via Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and YouTube. Debuting five years after Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, starring Oscar-winning actor Cillian Murphy, 28 Weeks Later chronicles a family and nation looking to rebuild six months after the Rage Virus outbreak and the resulting zombie apocalypse.

‘That Wouldn’t Have Worked’: Why 28 Days Later’s Writer & Director Sat Out 28 Weeks Later Before Franchise Return

While Alex Garland and Danny Boyle reunited for the new legacy sequel 28 Years Later, they sat out the original sequel.

The standalone sequel depicts NATO’s efforts to establish a safe zone in London after the original movie’s events wiped out the British Isles’ population. However, as refugees return to Britain and the worst of the outbreak is seemingly gone, it’s revealed that the virus is back and more dangerous than before. The post-apocalyptic horror film sees Renner portray a Delta Force sniper named Doyle, while Elba portrays Stone, a U.S. general overseeing one of the safe zones. The sequel also stars Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne and Harold Perrineau.

28 Weeks Later Led To More Sequels

Directed by Oscar-nominated helmer Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, 28 Weeks Later became a worthy follow-up to 28 Days Later, garnering a 72% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes and earning $65.8 million worldwide against its $15 million budget. Though another sequel was confirmed in 2007, development of the next installment, 28 Years Later, was confirmed in early 2024, with Boyle and 28 Days Later scribe Alex Garland returning.

28 Years Later is the first of an intended trilogy, with the Nia DaCosta-helmed The Bone Temple and an untitled third movie to follow. Garland didn’t definitively state whether 28 Weeks Later will serve as canon for 28 Years Later. He also alluded to the tonal shift between 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, explaining why he and Boyle didn’t return to work on the latter. Boyle is only directing the first of the three 28 Days Later films, while Garland penned the screenplay for 28 Days Later and The Bone Temple.

Why 28 Weeks Later Is an Underappreciated Horror Gem

Danny Boyle’s 28 Weeks Later is the story of a family and nation rebuilding after a zombie apocalypse, only for it to re-emerge.

28 Years Later takes place 28 years after the Rage Virus outbreak, chronicling a family living on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily defended causeway. When the family patriarch, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), and his son Spike (Alfie Williams) head to the mainland on a mission, they discover dark secrets and horrors of the outside world.

“In order to protect themselves against that weapon, they had to get to a lab in the UK where the virus was created,” Garland recently explained while speaking with The Last of Us‘ Neil Druckmann. “Because if you had the source virus, you could create a vaccine. That was the idea pre-Covid. Danny Boyle read it and he kind of said, ‘Yeah, OK. I sort of want to do this.’ But I know Danny very well. I’ve known him for years and years, and I could see that he didn’t really want to do it at all.”

“It’s three films, of which two have been shot,” Ralph Fiennes said of 28 Years Later in October. “Britain is 28 years into this terrible plague of infected people who are violent, rabid humans with a few pockets of uninfected communities. And it centers on a young boy who wants to find a doctor to help his dying mother. He leads his mother through this beautiful northern English terrain. But of course, around them hiding in forests and hills and woods are the infected. But he finds a doctor who is a man we might think is going to be weird and odd, but actually is a force for good.”

The film also stars Jodie Comer as Jamie’s partner Isla, and Ralph Fiennes as Dr. Kelson, a survivor of the outbreak. Jack O’Connell appears as cult leader Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal. Murphy won’t reprise his 28 Days Later role in 28 Years Later, but is expected to feature in the trilogy at some point.

28 Weeks Later will be available to stream on Hulu from June. 1, while 28 Years Later opens in theaters on June 20.

Source: Hulu

28 Weeks Later

Release Date

April 26, 2007
Runtime

100 minutes
Director

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Writers

Rowan Joffe, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Enrique López Lavigne, Jesús Olmo
28 Years Later

Release Date

June 20, 2025
Runtime

126 minutes
Director

Danny Boyle
Producers

Alex Garland, Andrew Macdonald, Bernard Bellew

Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Jamie

Jack O’Connell
Jimmy Crystal