28 Weeks Later was released in 2007, 15 years ago this year. The highly anticipated sequel gave us a breath-taking opening sequence that is still talked about being one of the best in horror movie history today. 28 Weeks Later does end with our survivors’ children Tammy and Andy escaping over the channel with helicopter pilot Flynn, with an end credits sneak peak of 28 Days Later with the infected roaming around Paris.
15 years have passed now, and we don’t seem to be much closer to getting any news of a sequel, we do always seen rumours come around whenever Danny Boyle or Alex Garland release a new movie, but sadly, we never get any clear news.
I have decided to put together a list of potential sequels in the franchise that I feel could work, some are only wild concepts, while others are meant to be more serious ideas that could become excellent addition to the franchise.
28 Months Later
28 Months Later is the most logically pick, it is also the title that is rumoured the most to happen. Picking up where the last movie ended, we could explore a different European city, showing how the rage virus has now escaped the quarantine of the British Isle into Europe, where the borders will see the virus spread like wildfire. Where this story could pick up, would be showing how the scientists have started getting answers of Andy, trying to create the cure, meeting other carriers from around Europe.
The story could follow a new group of survivors, having Tammy return too, needing to work the settlement, rather than being studied, where she must prove her worth to the scientific side to everything involved. This could also show Jim, Selena and Hannah return, depending on the end of 28 Days Later you follow up too. This story could go in many different, bring more drama to the story, moving away from the chaotic scenes of the infected. Putting focus on Jim and Stone clashing on what is the more important way to survive, not using the same motives that Major West had in 28 Days Later, clashing on what is important to survive, exposing Stone’s behavior in 28 Months Later. We could have a cameo from Scarlet (Rose Byrne) making contact with another scientist who she trusts to help find an answer with what is in Andy’s blood.
This would end up becoming a much bigger movie, taking us around Europe, potential having this as the journey movie that 28 Days Later is, include a mix of a set base of operations, and others needing to travel to that location. There are plenty of different set pieces that could be used, be infected or human enemies along the way too.
28 Minutes Later
28 Minutes Later would be a prequel to what we have seen before, but that doesn’t stop it bringing an interesting concept to the time-based outbreak. This would be focused on the activist group that got attacks by the chimps in the opening of 28 Days Later. We could turn this into a real time idea, we did the chaotic opening, showing a couple more members of this group waiting outside, hearing the noises, trying to get out of the facility. We might well know how it ends, with the virus escaping, turning the battle into a more contained environment, against a small number of enemies, that are slowly growing as the film roles on, ending the movie, with the infected first breaking into the wider world, as the military starts to arrive looking to contain the situation.
If we were to compare this to another zombie/infected people movie, it would be {Rec}, where the group are trapped in a building, we could have the idea the military are trying to contain, but this being would be too similar, I think if we see the activists trying to escape and warn people being the more interesting, as they would have to work with the people they are fighting back against, because of their experiments.
28 Hours Later
28 Hours Later could work in two directions, with the idea the facility that the experiments took part in being in a remote location, near a small village or town, one that will see them become swamped by the outbreak. We would follow a few residents along with the military arrive on the scene, looking to close down the threat.
On the first idea we could get the same trapped feeling that ’30 Days of Night’ operated with, showing the resident needing to work together to elude the infected, which will end up being the friends, mixed with the waiting out for the military arrival, which would take over the second half of the film, explaining what is going on, trying to keep the peace, turning into a bigger battle.
The other idea would follow Major Henry West and his men being the ones that arrive on the screen, introduce another military figure, one above him, who clashes with West, bring back some of the original soldiers as we see how one is conflicted about what is happening in 28 Days Later, so we can see both sides come together for the bigger picture. This would see them looking to close down the facility, rather than dealing with a town having the outbreak or having them trying to contain a town.
Either side of these stories could continue the chaos involved in the infection spreading. Bring the human conflict that both the other movies have had, bring a chance to learn how Major West and his men ended up thinking and acting the way they did in 28 Days Later.
28 Years Later
28 Years Later is another sequel that could go in different directions, it does feel like a too long of a gap, but let’s hear the ideas out.
First would be looking at a well-oiled island community that has remained well out of the way of the rage virus, watching over how it has all unfolded, seeing the last remaining infected slowly dying off, which we saw from 28 Days Later, over a shorter period of time. We can see how the infection had adapted to last longer, with the latest members starting to scout, seeing them die off, as they look to return to the mainland to start up a community or search for supplies. Part of this will look like the ‘Peninsula’ because you could have a deadly group of survivors who have adapted to the mainland or who have built a function community, but don’t want anyone else joining in.
The second one could be looking back in a different direction, seeing the people looking back on the events, studying what went wrong and how everything went wrong. This could end up diving into plenty of smaller stories, that would look like the ‘World War Z’ book, focusing on smaller moments of the outbreak and how people survived, searching for cures and risking everything for survival. This is something that would take the franchise in a different direction, almost looking at a court case vision of the outbreak, seeing how each country tackled the problem. Addressing what happened and how other countries would offer their own ideas for defence from the next potential outbreak.
The third way would show us how the world as managed to find a cure for the virus, looking at the consequences of what happened, until it manages to mutate again, unleashing the virus in the people you thought were safe around you. It would create the chaotic sequence or two, but it would struggle to feel as flushed out as the other stories that could happen in this world. Where we would need to spend more time focusing on the past, where the chaotic moments would be a fast finished, something that might not give the fans of the franchise the intense moments needed.
Selena: The Next 28 Days
Selena is one of the survivors in 28 Days Later and depending on which ending you saw, will define how this next chapter could go. The cinematic ending has a happier ending, with Selena, Jim and Hannah waiting for rescue with military aircraft seeing their sign. This ending has been mentioned before where they could return in other ideas.
The darker ending where Jim dies after Selena and Hannah try to save him after the gunshot he takes from West. This shows the pair walking out of the emergency room, to an unknown world as a new pairing. We could easily have a movie following the pair as they look at their next option in the world, finding more survivors, different enemies and target new safer locations. This would mean a recast of the younger character in Hannah, but we would be ready to explore more of the devastated British cities or countryside.
Selena: The First 28 Days
Selena has become a tough no nonsense woman in this world, we get to see this with how ruthlessly she deals with a new potential infection in her traveling companion Mark, even if it meant she would be traveling alone. There is a reported back story that we don’t get in the movie, which would be seeing Selena needing to make the difficult decisions in the new world, how she never wanted to, but it was the only way to survive. We would see the transition she goes through during the film, from her happy life to the toughest character in this world.