Cillian Murphy Is Flattered Everybody Thought He Would Play an Emaciated Zombie in ’28 Years Later’

As quickly because the teaser trailer for 28 Years Later dropped, just about everybody and their mother assumed the thin zombie seen struggling by way of flowers seemed uncannily like Cillian Murphy’s Jim, the franchise’s unique major character from director Danny Boyle and Alex Garland‘s 2002 28 Days Later. The web sleuths swiftly found the likeness was pure serendipity, however the Oscar-winning actor now says he was touched that followers had assumed the emaciated undead wanderer was him.

In an interview with The Observer, Murphy stated that, depsite being terminally offline himself, his son had made positive that he noticed the thin zombie everybody had assumed marked Jim’s grim return to the franchise.

“That’s nice individuals assume I seem like a zombie cadaver,” Murphy stated, dryly, as The Observer notes. “It’s very flattering.”

Shortly after Sony Footage debunked the rumor that the zombie was Murphy, model and actor Angus Neill revealed that he was the Murphy look-alike underneath all of the make-up. In keeping with The Guardian, Neill was “expertise noticed by Bolye, who was a lot struck by his distinctive seems.” These seems are that Neill is tall and gaunt with sharp cheekbones—all good issues to have for cinematic functions.

“Danny advised me he’d at all times had me in thoughts for the position,” Neill advised The Guardian. “So we met up, hit it off, and I agreed to participate … On set he has a rare skill to hypnotize you, and dealing with him on the movie was a really, very intense expertise.”

However hey, simply because Murphy wasn’t the zombie everybody thought he was, he’s nonetheless set to come back to the franchise as bicycle courier Jim in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which additionally stars Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connell. Although Murphy has cautioned followers to mood their expectations for his half within the movie, telling The Observer, he’s “solely in it for a little bit bit” on the finish of the film. Nonetheless, Murphy did tease that his return is all in service of organising a good larger position in a future film.

“Everybody’s bought to go and see the second,” Murphy stated. “I’m positive they may—it’s actually, actually good.”

In io9’s evaluation for 28 Years Later, we stated it was an extremely tense, totally fascinating zombie story, writing, “Whereas the ending isn’t as robust as the remainder of the movie, fortunately, that is the primary movie of a proposed trilogy, the second of which is out in January. We are able to’t wait to return. There’s nonetheless so, a lot to chew on.”

Within the meantime, people can look ahead to streaming 28 Years Later when it arrives on Netflix on September 20. The sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, hits theaters January 16, 2026.

Need extra io9 information? Take a look at when to count on the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and every little thing it’s essential find out about the way forward for Doctor Who.