After the release of
28 Weeks Later (2007), producer/writer
Danny Boyle stated that a third movie in the series had been mapped out, with the proposed working title '28 Months Later'. However, writer
Alex Garland said in 2010 that "when we made '28 Days Later', the rights were frozen between a group of people who no longer talk to one another. And so, the film will never happen unless those people start talking to each other once again. There is no script as far as I'm aware." After little progress over the years, Boyle and Garland finally announced in 2019 that they were both working on the project again, confirming in 2023 that it was ready to enter production. The film was finally greenlit in 2024. Although Boyle gave Garland the choice to direct, the latter indicated that he wanted to focus on writing after having directed
Civil War (2024).