How ’28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’ Brings Back the Franchise’s Most Enduring Character

Spoilers: It's no shock to the franchise's fans that Cillian Murphy is involved, but the way he shows back up may surprise some. Director Nia DaCosta walks IndieWire through the return of Jim.

[Editor’s note: The following article contains spoilers for “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple,” which is in theaters now.]

It’s one of our worst-kept secrets, a spoiler so well-known that it was reported a full seven months ago: Cillian Murphy is back in the “28 Days Later” universe, thanks to an appearance in Nia DaCosta’s “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.” Bike messenger Jim, our initial entry into Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s iconic zombie franchise and the star of Boyle’s 2003 horror classic “28 Days Later,” has long been teased to appear in the second film in a new mini-trilogy, and that was no guff.

Boyle told us last June that “there is a very satisfying introduction of him in the second film, and when I saw it, the way [Nia had] done it, I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s pretty good.'”

Boyle also hinted at what’s to come in the third film, which he will direct and Garland will again write. At the time that we spoke, that film had not yet been greenlit, but Boyle was clearly already hard at work on it. He said, “It doesn’t take a genius to work out there’s going to be a big role for Cillian Murphy in it. Yeah, a significant role. All I can say, because I know the idea of the story, which has been mapped out, it is clever. It is a very smart use of him.”

So, how does “The Bone Temple” bring back Jim?

[One more time: The following article contains spoilers for “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple,” which is in theaters now.]

First off, a key reminder of where we last left the character. At the end of “28 Days Later,” Jim, along with Selena (Naomie Harris) and Hannah (Megan Burns), has escaped to Cumbria, in the northwest of England (way up near Scotland). While the trio have settled into a, frankly, really charming cottage, when a jet flies overhead, they’re ready with a giant banner reading “HELP.”

While the end of “28 Days Later” sets up for the possibility that the trio are rescued, its sequel “28 Weeks Later” isn’t so interested in that: It doesn’t feature any of the characters from Boyle’s film and it shows a world even more overrun by the virus, with it presumably breaking containment into the rest of Europe by that film’s end. Still, “28 Years Later” retcons that aspect, imagining a world that has otherwise done away with the virus (or never even really faced it), with only the British Isles placed under an indefinite quarantine.

No matter how it ultimately shakes out, DaCosta’s film offers a clearer answer: Jim is still in the cottage in Cumbria. And he’s not alone.

“It was awesome. As a fan, a huge fan of his and also as a huge fan of ’28 Days Later,’ it was phenomenal to be the person to bring him back,” DaCosta said in a recent interview with IndieWire. “That’s so crazy.”

We see Jim and his young companion (an unnamed daughter in her early teens) in the final moments of “The Bone Temple,” which drops us into a seemingly normal moment in their lives. Jim’s daughter is studying for an exam (to be administered, naturally, by her father) on European history (special emphasis on the rise of fascism!). She’s working away at a desk that overlooks their verdant homestead, and Jim is busy popping in and out, bringing her a snack, chatting about the exam, and generally operating on in an easy domestic register.

“Just in terms of directing, I felt like the way that scene’s written, it’s a father teaching his daughter about history at the end of fascism and making her tea and toast, and then the outside world intrudes, which will springboard us into the third [film],” she said. “I felt like I had to honor that and not do some crazy ‘…and here is the hero coming back again!’ [moment].”

Dropping the audience into a quiet moment was appealing for DaCosta, and she knew that much of the power of the sequence would be fueled by Murphy’s appearance alone. (Of note: We don’t see any other residents in the cottage beyond Jim and his daughter, but that does not mean they are the only ones who live there.)

“The dude’s a bike messenger, you know what I mean?” the director said. “But he’s a powerful character for us because of the journey he goes on in that first film. So I wanted to honor that, what was on the page, and not get too bombastic or flamboyant in that scene, I wanted it to feel peaceful and beautiful and nostalgic, almost. And Cillian was on the same page; he didn’t want it to be a whole whoop-de-do. It’s about balancing those sorts of things, because it’s so tempting, because it’s a franchise movie now, ‘Let me get franchise-y!’ You’ve got to stay away from that.”

Still, as promised by Boyle, we do get a glimpse of the current shape of Jim’s brand of survival. As he and his daughter work away, a distant sound alerts them to something outside. Based on how prepared they seem to confront it — they venture out quickly, armed and ready — it doesn’t seem like this is entirely new territory to them. And yet, as they gaze out to the countryside, it’s not just a pack of infected they see, it’s also young Spike (Alfie Williams) and Jimmy Ink (who we now know is named Kelly, played by Erin Kellyman), desperately fleeing from them.

Jim’s daughter asks what they are to do, and if they should help them. “Of course,” Jim responds, just before the film cuts to black.

It brings to mind something else Boyle told us last summer and how DaCosta imagines it: “I remember asking Nia [about this new trilogy], ‘What do you think it’s about?’ It won’t necessarily end up being about this because films change, but I said, ‘What do you think it’s about?’ And she said, well, I think the first one is about the nature of family. The second one’s about the nature of evil. And the third one is about the nature of redemption.”

Sony Pictures will release “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” in theaters on Friday, January 16.