‘Nihilistic and horrific’ - 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple director Nia DaCosta teases sequel

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is more “nihilistic and violent” than the first movie, director Nia DaCosta has said.

The upcoming horror sequel will expand on the story of the mysterious Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) while introducing a new threat with Sir Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) and his Jimmy gang, and DaCosta has now teased the “brutality” that awaits fans in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.

Speaking on Deadline’s Crew Call podcast, the 36-year-old director said: “[The Bone Temple] gets to expand on these existential themes.

“When Kelson says ‘Memento mori, memento amore’ - ‘Remember, you must die. Remember, you must love’ - he’s really talking about how to manage meaning in your life, how to create meaning in a life that feels meaningless, and how to hold on to hope in a world that feels lost.

“His way of attaining meaning is with the connection and believing in each other as humans, and Jimmy is the exact opposite.

“It’s sort of nihilistic and violent and horrific. And, so, I think to match the beauty of Kelson, you have to have the brutality on the other side.”

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple picks up after the events of 28 Years Later, and follows Spike (Alfie Williams) as he is inducted into Sir Jimmy Crystal’s (O’Connell) Jimmy gang on the British mainland, only to discover the infected are not the most terrifying threat against his reality.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kelson (Fiennes) makes a shocking discovery that could change the world.

The movie - which hits cinemas on January 14, 2026 in the UK and January 16 in the U.S. - also stars Erin Kellyman as Jimmy Ink, Emma Laird as Jimmima, Maura Bird as Jimmy Jones.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple will also see the return of Cillian Murphy’s 28 Days Later protagonist Jim in what will be the actor’s first on-screen role in creators Alex Garland and Danny Boyle’s horror franchise since the original 2002 film.

Recently, Fiennes reflected on how the relationship his Dr. Kelson has with the infected Alpha known as Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry) is expanded on in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.

During an interview with Bloody Disgusting, the 63-year-old actor said: “I think his project gives him meaning, gives life meaning for him, and he recognises he might die, but he’s unusual. He’s something of a medieval figure who survives in a sort of landscape of plague.

“They’re odd, I think they’re odd, he’s almost a sort of priest-like as well. Yeah. I can only think he’s held on to something.

“There are people, I think, with extraordinary psychological stamina, who will hold on, and keep by reading and listening to music, and just keep connected to a sense of the rational.”

The Harry Potter star added Kelson “hadn’t gone mad” in the British wastelands, and had instead found a new sense of purpose in the apocalypse.

Fiennes explained: “I think he’s written as empathetic, he’s essentially a man who’s, he’s a doctor, he cares. He has no agenda.

“He’s got this task of honouring the dead. I think he’s a combination, isn’t he, of sort of doctor and a mortician, and I think he must have unusual psychological stamina, that within the small amount of possessions he’s retained, books and records, he’s been able to keep some rationale alive.

“He hasn’t gone mad. Some people would’ve gone violent, or gone mad, or committed suicide, he’s got some strong interior.”