Why is it 28 Years Later and not 28 Months Later?

28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later… and now, 28 Years Later is in development – but what happened to 28 Months Later?

In 2002, Danny Boyle and Alex Garland re-energized the zombie genre with 28 Days Later. Instead of Romero’s brain-munching undead, this film’s virus specifically targeted the living, stripping them of their civility and leaving them in a state of constant red-eyed rage.

The first movie remains a masterpiece; a monstrous, yet hopeful allegory for the depths of (in)humanity. Its sequel, 28 Weeks Later, lost the prestige of the writer-director duo – but it has perhaps the most blood-chilling, pulse-racing opening sequence of any movie in the 21st century.

A third installment was first floated as a possibility in 2007. We’re more than 15 years on, and the threequel has finally been announced – but not with the title people expected.

Searchlight Pictures

Why isn’t 28 Years Later called 28 Months Later?

While there hasn’t been an official explanation, the reason is obvious: considering it’s been so long since the first two films, 28 Years Later is a more appropriate continuation of the story.

That’s not to say it wasn’t originally meant to be 28 Months Later. Shortly after the physical media release of the sequel, reports emerged noting that DVD sales would need to be considerable for a third movie to be green-lit.

While promoting Sunshine, Boyle said the story for the next installment had already been mapped out, but in the years to come there were difficulties regarding the rights to the series, as well as other development hurdles.

In 2015, Garland told IGN: “We’ve just started talking about it seriously. We’ve got an idea. Danny [Boyle] and [producer] Andrew [Macdonald] and I have been having quite serious conversations about it so it is a possibility. It’s complicated. There’s a whole bunch of reasons why it’s complicated, which are boring so I won’t go into, but there’s a possibility.

“It’s more likely to be 28 Months than 28 Years. 28 Years gives you one more place to go. 28 Decades is probably taking the piss.”

In 2023, as part of an oral history for the first movie, Garland told Inverse he’d “resisted” writing a third entry “because there were things about 28 Weeks that bugged me. I just thought, ‘F**k that. I’d rather try to write a different story in a different world.”

“But a few years ago an idea materialized in my head for what would be really 28 Years Later. Danny always liked the idea,” he added.

28 Years Later has since been announced, and it’s intended to launch a new trilogy – but we’re not expecting Part 2 and 3 to be called 28 Decades Later and 28 Centuries Later.

You can find out everything we know about 28 Years Later here.