It was partly to do with the passage of time, Garland told io9 over video chat.
It sounds dumb, but you get locked in.
Originally I wrote 28 Days Later as almost like a gag.
Cillian Murphy in 28 Days Later.Image: Searchlight
It was making a caption into the title.
You know, 12 hours later, The next day, except make it the title.
And then youre stuck with it.
[Laughs] You got to live with the thing.
And 28 Months Later would have seemed weird given the amount of time that had passed.
And, 28 Weeks Later, someone had already done it.
And so our last time frame, unless we start moving to centuries, was 28 years.
And enough time had passed to justify that right.
But, of course, there were a few other big factors beyond just the timing.
I had not really had an idea that I was interested in prior to that.
It had been floated.
Wed talk about it.
Every five years or something it would get discussed, but I had no motivation to do it.
I said, Okay, I think Ive got an idea.
And there was a possibility which we may not have the opportunity to dobut to do a proper trilogy.
Films cost a lot of money.
Even cheap films cost a lot of money.
You know, people talk low-budget, but its a lot of money always.
And so that depends on really whether people want to see future ones after weve made it.
But, either way, 28 Years Later from Alex Garland and Danny Boyle is coming.
And ultimately itll be coming… almost 28 years after the original too.
Want more io9 news?
News from the future, delivered to your present.