The rage virus has never truly left the cultural bloodstream, and now it’s back with a vengeance. Sony has dropped the first trailer for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, the second chapter in the long-awaited revival of Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s apocalyptic franchise. Directed by Nia DaCosta this time around (Candyman, The Marvels) with a script still written by Garland, the film continues to expand the bleak, blood-stained world first introduced in 2002’s 28 Days Later brought back with a vengeance this very year.

Read our review: '28 Years Later Revives the Rage in a Bold and Beautiful Return to Form'

Set for release on January 16, 2026, The Bone Temple takes the series into chilling new territory. Ralph Fiennes returns as Dr. Ian Kelson, an eccentric survivor who becomes entangled in a sinister cult and their eerie monuments built from bones. The trailer teases a descent into psychological horror, shifting the focus from the infected hordes to the horrors humanity inflicts upon itself decades into the collapse.

The footage doesn’t hold back on nightmare fuel: grim processions through skeletal shrines, unsettling rituals, and the unmistakable sense that even in the absence of infection, survival demands unthinkable sacrifices. Jack O’Connell looms large as Sir Jimmy Crystal, a cult leader with a violent vision for the future, while Alfie Williams’ Spike is dragged deeper into his sinister orbit. Erin Kellyman, Emma Laird, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson add to the ensemble, with a surprise glimpse of Cillian Murphy’s Jim suggesting the franchise still has plenty of connective tissue to explore.

Shot back-to-back with the first installment of the new trilogy, The Bone Temple is being positioned as the darkest entry yet. DaCosta’s sharp eye and Garland’s uncompromising writing promise a continuation that doesn’t just rehash the virus-ridden terror of the past but expands it into something more primal and mythic. If the trailer is any indication, audiences are in for a brutal meditation on faith, fear, and the fragility of what’s left of humanity.

'28 Years Later: The Bone Temple' releases to theaters January 16th, 2026.