{"id":3224,"date":"2025-09-08T18:27:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T18:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/3224\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T18:27:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T18:27:06","slug":"cillian-murphy-is-flattered-everyone-thought-he-would-play-an-emaciated-zombie-in-28-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/3224\/","title":{"rendered":"Cillian Murphy Is Flattered Everyone Thought He Would Play an Emaciated Zombie in ’28 Years Later’"},"content":{"rendered":"

As soon as the teaser trailer for 28 Years Later<\/a> dropped, pretty much everyone and their mom assumed the skinny zombie seen struggling through flowers looked uncannily like Cillian Murphy\u2019s Jim, the franchise\u2019s original main character from director Danny Boyle<\/a> and Alex Garland<\/a>\u2018s 2002 28 Days Later<\/a>. The internet sleuths swiftly discovered the likeness was pure serendipity, but the Oscar-winning actor now says he was touched that fans had assumed the emaciated undead wanderer was him.<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Observer<\/a>, Murphy said that, depsite being terminally offline himself, his son had made sure that he saw the skinny zombie everyone had assumed marked Jim\u2019s grim return to the franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s great people think I look like a zombie cadaver,\u201d Murphy said, dryly, as The Observer notes. \u201cIt\u2019s very flattering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after Sony Pictures debunked the rumor\u00a0that the zombie was Murphy,\u00a0model and actor Angus Neill<\/a> revealed that\u00a0he was the Murphy look-alike under all the makeup. According to The Guardian<\/a>, Neill was \u201ctalent spotted by Bolye, who was much struck by his distinctive looks.\u201d Those looks are that Neill is tall and gaunt with sharp cheekbones\u2014all good things to have for cinematic purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cDanny told me he\u2019d always had me in mind for the role,\u201d Neill told The Guardian. \u201cSo we met up, hit it off, and I agreed to take part \u2026 On set he has an extraordinary ability to hypnotize you, and working with him on the film was a very, very intense experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

But hey, just because Murphy wasn\u2019t the zombie everyone thought he was, he is still set to come back<\/a> to the franchise as bicycle courier Jim in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple<\/a>, which also stars Ralph Fiennes and Jack O\u2019Connell. Though Murphy has cautioned fans to temper their expectations for his part in the film, telling The Observer, he\u2019s \u201conly in it for a little bit\u201d at the end of the movie. Still, Murphy did tease that his return is all in service of setting up an even bigger role in a future film<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s got to go and see the second one,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cI\u2019m sure they will\u2014it\u2019s really, really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

In io9\u2019s review for 28 Years Later<\/a>, we said it was an incredibly tense, thoroughly fascinating zombie tale, writing, \u201cWhile the ending isn\u2019t as strong as the rest of the film, thankfully, this is the first film of a proposed trilogy, the second of which is out in January. We can\u2019t wait to go back. There\u2019s still so, so much to chew on.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, folks can look forward to streaming\u00a028 Years Later when it arrives on Netflix on September 20. The sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple,\u00a0hits theaters January 16, 2026.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As soon as the teaser trailer for 28 Years Later dropped, pretty much everyone and their mom assumed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[4297,4298,4299,4300,458,398,4301,146,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-3224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-28-days-later","9":"tag-28-years-later","10":"tag-28-years-later-the-bone-temple","11":"tag-alex-garland","12":"tag-celebrities","13":"tag-cillian-murphy","14":"tag-danny-boyle","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-il","17":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}