Emaciated 28 Years Later Zombie Actor Speaks Out After Cillian Murphy Rumors

This week fearfulness fans got a archetypal trailer for 1 of the genre’s astir anticipated upcoming releases: 28 Years Later, the long-awaited adjacent installment successful Danny Boyle and Alex Garland‘s zombie saga. It shows a satellite inactive successful post-apocalyptic chaos decades aft the dormant began walking, and it looks suitably terrifying. But 1 speedy changeable successful the trailer got sharp-eyed viewers talking: was that 28 Days Later prima and recently minted Oscar victor Cillian Murphy making a franchise instrumentality arsenic Jim… arsenic a near-skeletal corpse?

Turns retired it’s not Murphy, who is executive-producing 28 Years Later but has yet to beryllium confirmed for an on-screen quality (though the formed is stacked adjacent without him: Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O’ Connell, Alfie Williams, and Ralph Fiennes). According to the Guardian, the zombie successful the trailer is played by Angus Neill—and the work adjacent tracked the creation trader and exemplary down to get the afloat story.

Apparently Neill was “talent-spotted by Boyle, who was overmuch struck by his distinctive looks.” Going by the modeling profile linked by the Guardian, Neill has a people gaunt appearance—you thought Murphy had crisp cheekbones?—so you tin benignant of spot however Boyle would look astatine him and deliberation “zombie!” Though determination are evidently prosthetics and peculiar effects make-up involved, Neill does marque the cleanable canvas for an expressive ghoul. (Sony oregon anyone progressive successful creating 28 Years Later has yet to remark connected Neill’s role.)

Speaking to the Guardian, Neill said, “Danny told maine he’d ever had maine successful caput for the role. So we met up, deed it off, and I agreed to instrumentality portion … On acceptable helium has an bonzer quality to hypnotize you, and moving with him connected the movie was a very, precise aggravated experience.”

Here’s the authoritative synopsis for the film: “It’s been astir 3 decades since the rage microorganism escaped a biologic weapons laboratory, and now, inactive successful a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, immoderate person recovered ways to beryllium amidst the infected. One specified radical of survivors lives connected a tiny land connected to the mainland by a single, heavily-defended causeway. When 1 of the radical leaves the land connected a ngo into the acheronian bosom of the mainland, helium discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that person mutated not lone the infected but different survivors arsenic well.”

Murphy’s Jim could inactive look successful 28 Years Later—it would acceptable into the continuity of the story, and it would beryllium a fantastic nexus backmost to the archetypal film, which was released successful 2002 and ushered Murphy into stardom. However, with 28 Years Later planned arsenic the archetypal successful a caller trilogy, there’s plentifulness of clip up to spot what Jim’s been up to (presumably, a batch of zombie slaying) since we saw him last.

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