Jodie Comer has revealed what drew her to the horror genre for the first time in the upcoming sequel 28 Years Later. The Killing Eve star plays Isla, a survivor living on Holy Island off the northeast coast of Britain, where a community has managed to fend off the infected that now run rampant on the mainland.
Comer told RadioTimes.com that the opportunity to work with director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland was a key factor. 'I'd never done a genre piece before, and it feels like if you're going to delve into a world like this, to be led by them, it was a kind of dream,' she said. The two-decade gap between Boyle's original 28 Days Later and this new film also appealed to her, as she wanted to see how the filmmakers had utilised that time to continue the story.
The actress described feeling 'exhilaration' after a recent screening of 28 Years Later. 'There's the terror, but there's the intimacy and the emotion, and the levity, there's the humour. You kind of go through this washing machine of emotions and then come out feeling energised and affected in some way,' she explained.
In the film, Comer's character Isla is ailing and must send her husband Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and their young son Spike (Alfie Williams) to the mainland for the first time. The causeway connecting Holy Island is only accessible at low tide, and the trip involves Spike's first encounter with the infected. Comer praised Williams, now 14, who will also star in the next instalment, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, directed by Nia DaCosta and due in January 2026.
Ralph Fiennes joins the franchise as Dr Kelson, a survivor on the mainland who builds a tower of skulls from those who have died from the virus. Fiennes described the character as 'a combination of priest and installation artist' and noted the film's strong themes of England and humanity. The Bone Tower was constructed in North Yorkshire, alongside the River Ure, which Fiennes said was 'a very special place to be in'.
