The director of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple has said that she would love viewers to be "truly surprised" when they see the return of Cillian Murphy in the latest instalment of the horror/action series.
Murphy appeared in the first film in the hit franchise in 2002 playing Jim, a bicycle courier who emerges from a coma to find that the accidental release of a highly contagious, rage-inducing virus has caused the collapse of society.
There has since been two sequels in the Danny Boyle and Alex Garland creation, 2007's 28 Weeks Later and 2024’s 28 Years Later, and now Murphy has returned for the latest instalment, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which is in cinemas now.
There will also be a fifth and final movie with Murphy taking a central role in the action.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, director Nia DaCosta, whose previous credits include Candyman, The Marvels, and Hedda, said, "It was so great to have Cillian back, it was lovely because we are spending so much time outside in the wilderness and in the woods with all this violence and then Jim returns.
"That character and that scene brings a much more familiar world to us. We see Jim grown up and it was really rewarding and fulfilling for me as a fan of these movies to see Jim grown up so he brought that energy to this movie."
Danny Boyle confirmed the return of Murphy last year but there is a huge degree of secrecy around the Cork actor’s comeback.
"For me, the level of secrecy is very high," says DaCosta. "I would love people to be truly surprised when they watch the movie."
The new film sees Ralph Fiennes reprise his role as Kelson, a mysterious doctor who has managed to escape the virus and is now working on a cure.
Watch our interview with Ralph Fiennes
The Bone Temple also follows Alfie Williams as Spike, a teenage boy who escapes his island home off the coast of Northern England to explore the mainland, and who has now fallen under the toxic influence and control of the Jimmys, a feral brigand of occultists led by Jimmy (Jack O’Connell).
However, young Spike does find an ally and friend in the group - Jimmy Ink (Erin Kellyman), who, like the rest of the children in the gang, looks like one of the kids from John Wyndham’s novel The Midwich Cuckoos.
The Jimmys, who all dress like a certain late disgraced, tracksuit and medallion-wearing TV presenter, appear to be a gang but they’re really a cult.
"I’d say so, yes," says Kellyman, who has previously appeared in Channel 4 sitcom Raised by Wolves, Solo: A Star Wars Story, and Eleanor the Great. "The group is definitely weird and Jimmy Ink has been a part of it since she was a child and when we meet her, she is just done, she is so traumatised, she has seen and been through so much."
Her relationship with Spike is central to the new movie and they are drawn to each other amid the ritualistic and warped moral universe of the gang.
"We meet them as teenagers becoming adults but we spoke a lot about where each character has been before," says Kellyman. "There is something about Spike that reminds Jimmy Ink of her family or her brother or someone she had before the rage virus and that gives her a glimmer of hope.
"There is something in Spike that she wants to save from all the trauma that she has seen."
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is in cinemas now
