CinemaCon 2025 opening night turns heads with a brand new 28 Years Later trailer

28 Years Later is making waves at the CinemaCon 2025 with the release of its second official trailer. While it is yet to appear online, the online sources reveal key details about what happens in the new footage. Much like the first trailer that was released in December 2024, the latest trailer shows Aaron Taylor-Johnson's character and a young boy (Alfie Williams) journeying through a remote island.

Considered to be a haven for humans from zombies, this island faces the wrath of the flesh-eating creatures all over again. So, the stakes seem higher as we see

"mountains of skulls, fields of yellow flowers, and hoards of infected"

in the second 28 Years Later trailer. Once again, Rudyard Kipling's Boots poem accompanies this hellscape and amps its horror quotient.

Ralph Fiennes reportedly narrates a tale as a survivor of the rage virus. He, Taylor-Johnson, and Williams are joined by a cast of Jodie Comer (Killing Eve), Jack O’Connell (Sinners), Emma Laird (The Brutalist), and more. Cillian Murphy will also return to the franchise more than two decades after 28 Days Later.

While referring to Murphy's return, director Danny Boyle said,

“Like all good things in life, you may have to wait a little while for him to make his appearance.”

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28 Years Later at CinemaCon: Danny Boyle takes the stage to speak about the threequel

Danny Boyle and Alex Garland return to the franchise as the director-writer duo after their pioneering 2002 sci-fi horror flick. During the CinemaCon trailer release, Boyle used a Mark Twain quote to quip about his return to "killing zombies" on screen in 28 Years Later.

"I still love an apocalypse. I still love killing zombies and I still love blowing shit up. Age is no indication of maturity, I’m just saying.”

Civil War director Alex Garland returns as a scribe for Boyle's film and the second chapter of the 28 Years series, planned to be a trilogy. Nia DeCosta, who brought the Candyman sequel to the screens, is directing the follow-up to Boyle's upcoming film, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. At the CinemaCon, DeCosta said,

“While it’s very much informed by 28 Days Later, the script for The Bone Temple is very different. I was able to let my freak flag fly.”

DeCosta is also supposed to direct a third part, although it has not been greenlit yet. So, Danny Boyle hopes the viewers show up in promising numbers for the first two chapters to help raise the confidence of exhibitors to finance the third one.

28 Years Later is scheduled to hit the theaters on June 20, 2025.