Alex Garland Never Considered Directing 28 YEARS LATER, and Was Done With Directing When Writing It — GeekTyrant

As the long-awaited 28 Days Later gears up for release, Alex Garland is back as screenwriter while Danny Boyle returns to direct. Despite Garland’s own acclaimed directing career, which includes Ex Machina, Annihilation, Men, and Civil War, he told ComicBook that he never even considered taking the helm himself. He said:

“No. I was certainly, at that point, sort of done with directing and wanted to write for other people. [That] was one thing, but also, even if Danny hadn’t wanted to do it… I think if Danny hadn’t wanted to direct it, that probably would have just ended it at that point. And I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to step in and, take that role.”

For Garland, this trilogy only works if Boyle is at the helm. He added:

“It just wasn’t the dynamic by which the original film was made. And the original film was the product of lots of people working together. Cast, crew and sort of broadly… But within it was some kind of interaction between me and Danny. And that had to be true for this one as well.”

While fans may be surprised to hear Garland describe himself as “done with directing” when he was working on these film, he jumped back into that role and most recently co-directed Warfare with Ray Mendoza, and now he set to direct the Elden Ring movie for A24, so he clearly has a passion for directing still.

Garland and Boyle originally shook up the zombie genre with 28 Days Later in 2003, a low-budget indie that exploded into a cult classic. The 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later followed without them and, while entertaining, lacked the same creative spark. Now, with the original team reunited, there’s renewed excitement around where this story might go.

28 Years Later opens in U.S. theaters on June 20, and it’s not just a one-off. The film was shot back-to-back with a sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, written by Garland and directed by Candyman filmmaker Nia DaCosta. That one is slated for January 16, 2026. A final untitled film, also written by Garland and directed by Boyle, will eventually close out the trilogy.