$900M Horror Franchise Just Stole the Perfect Actor Team-Up We Want for a Different Sequel

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A Quiet Place: Day One successfully expanded the world even further, but it won’t be until July of 2027 that we get the third and final true mainline installment of the saga. And, when we do, not only will Murphy be back for A Quiet Place Part III, but his 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple co-star (though they never shared the screen) Jack O’Connell, as well. And that brings up a question. Just what does this mean for the third and final 28 Years Later movie?

The Likely Fate of 28 Years Later 3

Image Courtesy of Sony

Even though we’re just three months into it, 2026 has been an outstanding one for horror. Primate made money and was a fun John Carpenter-esque throwback. Send Help was a welcome return of horror-comedy aficionado Sam Raimi. Scream 7 became the highest grossing of its franchise. And now, we’re on the cusp of Ready or Not 2: Here I Come‘s release. But the apex of the year’s horror output thus far was The Bone Temple.

28 Years Later was pretty divisive last year. It featured the same running zombie intensity but it took some pretty big narrative swings. The Bone Temple allowed those big narrative swings to pay off, but it seems that first one (well, the third, technically) already pushed away most of its audience. The cold hard truth is that The Bone Temple, in spite of excellent direction by Nia DaCosta and sterling acting from Ralph Fiennes and O’Connell, landed with a thud. It didn’t even match its $63 million budget worldwide. The 2025 movie made $151.3 million all told.

Suffice to say, a third 28 Years Later was already on shaky ground even before it was announced that O’Connell would be joining Murphy in A Quiet Place. But it’s not even really O’Connell that would affect a third 28 Years, it’s Murphy. O’Connell’s Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal is dead by the end of The Bone Temple, while Murphy’s Jim has just entered the fray. That said, never say never to an infected Jimmy Crystal.

The irony is that the third 28 Years Later was set to be the one the fans wanted all along. 28 Days Later is still pretty much universally considered the best of the franchise, and for decades fans have wanted to pick up where Jim’s story left off. With Murphy busy for at least a few months filming A Quiet Place, a follow-up to The Bone Temple seems even less likely. The studio surely realizes that if there is a chance to rebound financially with a fifth and final film it’s now, when the 28 franchise is in the midst of renewed relevance. As it stands, though, we’re looking at a Divergent situation, where we’re so close to having the whole story told only for it to fall by the wayside with just one movie left to go.

Are you still holding out hope for a sequel to The Bone Temple? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!