When the Sony Pictures studio unveiled the trailer for “28 Years Later”, everyone thought they saw Cillian Murphy during a cadaverous appearance. Until an art dealer revealed that it was in no way the Irish actor.
This is a mistake. Last Tuesday, the Sony Pictures studio unveiled the first trailer for “28 Years Later”, one of the most anticipated films of the year 2025. The feature film sees Danny Boyle and Alex Garland reprise their roles – director and screenwriter respectively – on the first film released in 2002. Cillian Murphy had for his part indicated that he would make a short appearance in this third part expected on June 18 in French cinemas. It was therefore quite natural that the public thought they recognized him when they saw a cadaverous man standing up in the trailer (see at 01:53).
And yet, the British site The Guardian revealed the next day that this “emaciated infected” was not played by the Irish actor, but by the art dealer Angus Neill. A non-professional actor, model in his spare time, spotted by Danny Boyle himself.
“Danny told me he had thought of me for this role. So we met, we talked, and I accepted the role,” Angus Neill told the Guardian. “On set, he has this ability to hypnotize you, and working with him on this film was a very intense experience,” he continues.
A return announced
In the film “28 Days Later”, the first part released in 2002, Cillian Murphy plays Jim, a deliveryman who wakes up in a London hospital and discovers a city emptied of its population after the spread of a virus transforming its victims into ultra-aggressive zombies. The character manages to survive the end of the story, but did not make an appearance in the sequel released in 2007.
Cillian Murphy recently confirmed that he had agreed to make an appearance in this third part in a “surprising” way, without further details. We will therefore have to wait a little longer before knowing more about how the 48-year-old actor will be integrated into the story of this film, brought to the screen by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes and Jodie Comer .
As a reminder, “28 Years Later” will take place thirty years after the events of the first film, and will follow a community of survivors taking refuge on an island, connected to the continent by a single road placed under high surveillance. When a mission is organized beyond the confined space, an inhabitant discovers that the infected have mutated in surprising ways, and that other survivors have found a way to evolve among them.
