Uh-oh, 28 Years Later fans are worrying that the third film in the revival trilogy has been cancelled, and there's a lack of official communication to quell the rumours. In fact, it's a bit of official communication that has exacerbated them.
Back when 28 Years Later was first announced, original director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland announced they were planning on making a trilogy, filming the first two back-to-back.
Boyle later stated that the third film hadn't actually been greenlit by studio Sony alongside the first two, and would only happen if all the financials made sense. The third film was announced after fan screenings of The Bone Temple, which were hugely positive.
But following the second film's release and subsequent under-performance at the box office, speculation has started to circulate about Sony cooling on the idea of doing a third movie.
While reports from outlets such as World of Reel cite anonymous sources, Hollywood runs on numbers, and The Bone Temple only made $57.6 million at the worldwide box office versus its predecessor's $151.3 million. Each film reportedly had a $60 million budget.
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Fuelling the fire is a social media post from the franchise's official account, promoting the US digital release of The Bone Temple with the tagline "Witness the ending you've been waiting 28 years for".
The choice of the word "ending" has fans either convinced or extremely concerned that the third film has been quietly cancelled.
Others aren't so convinced, believing that "the ending you've been waiting 28 years for" is just a reference to the highly anticipated return of Cillian Murphy's Jim in the final scene. However, the character's appearance is actually 24 years after the release of the original 2002 movie, rather than 28.
Related: How Cillian Murphy's return and game-changing Samson reveal sets up third 28 Years Later movie
The lack of updates on the third film from Boyle, Garland, Sony or anyone else while these cancellation rumours spread is worrying, as is the fact that The Bone Temple did a lot less business at the box office than 28 Years Later.
But could The Bone Temple's performance on digital and Jim's on-screen reintroduction be enough to save the trilogy?
Digital Spy gave The Bone Temple a four-star review, writing: "One thing you can't accuse the sequel of is playing it safe. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a strong continuation of the series, one that manages to stand on its own as an excellent whole while satisfyingly setting up the final instalment."
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple can be bought or rented digitally soon in the UK, while 28 Years Later and 28 Days Later are available to stream with a Sky/NOW Cinema subscription.
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
