Though it’s been “only” 22 years since director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland teamed up on one of the best horror movies of all-time, 28 Days Later, they’ve reteamed anew for the highly anticipated sequel 28 Years Later. Now fully in production on the way to its eventual 2025 release, the upcoming horror flick has still only unveiled a limited number of details for what fans can expect, including character info for its previously announced cast.
But what if that all-around lack of information was as telling as a two-sentence synopsis? Specifically when it comes to Killing Eve vet and The Bikeriders stars Jamie Comer’s character, who was revealed to have signed on for 28 Years Later alongside rumored James Bond candidate Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes, with Jack O’Connell’s addition and Cillian Murphy’s return confirmed in the ensuing weeks. Jim being back is key to my biggest theory about Comer’s storyline, so let’s dive in.
Could Jodie Comer Be Playing 28 Days Later Survivor Hannah?
Before Cillian Murphy was revealed to be returning to this franchise as Jim, the glassy-eyed protagonist from the first film, it was easier to consider the idea that Danny Boyle and Alex Garland intended to make this sequel stand completely apart from the previous two films, as far as character connections go. The speculation center of my brain was happy to conjure up casual theories, as opposed to all the alarms that started blaring in there after the Oppenheimer star’s involvement made the rounds.
Because one good returning character deserves another, perhaps the most likely throughline to ponder about is the possibility of Comer popping up in this post-apocalyptic universe as the all-grown-up version of Megan Burns’ Hannah, the daughter of Brendan Gleeson’s Frank in the original film. After all, the franchise has never offered up an official update on her whereabouts after she, Jim and Selena captured the eyes of a jet pilot with their “Hello” sign at the film’s conclusion. (She went unmentioned in the two comic follow-ups and film sequel.)
As far as age goes, Jodie Comer technically skews too young to properly play a grown up Hannah, who would be in her 40s during 28 Years Later’s timeline. The Tony and Emmy winner is currently 31 years old, which is a fairly large gap by all means, but certainly isn’t impossible to fake with some makeup and style choices.
Jodie Comer has always looked potentially well beyond her age, though it tends to depend on the role she’s playing. If she’s meant to portray a more bubbly and optimistic personality, there’s not a problem. Alternately, as it went with Killing Eve and The White Princess, if she’s meant to be playing a serious character who does lots of thinking and scheming, she can appear to be way older.
Could Jodie Comer Be Playing 28 Weeks Later’s Tammy?
It’s probably obvious that the following line of thinking squares up with the idea that Jodie Comer could be playing the first movie’s young female survivor: she could also possibly be portraying the sequel’s Tammy. For the 2007 sequel directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Imogen Poots plays Tammy, the daughter of Robert Carlye’s Don and Catherine McCormack’s Alice, as well as the brother of Mackintosh Muggleton’s Andy.
By the end of 28 Weeks Later, Tammy and Andy are among the only survivors, as they’re picked up via helicopter by Harold Perrineau’s Flynn, who is taking them to France, though it’s made clear that the bulk of Europe was hammered by the Rage Virus plague. So she obviously could have been taken to some kind of haven where she and her brother were kept safe. (There’s a whole separate leg of this theory that could be tied to Jack O’Connell possibly playing Andy, but we’ll keep this limited.)
Imogen Poots will be turning 35 in June 2024, so she’s slightly younger than Megan Turner, and thus wouldn’t need as much aging up for Comer in the sequel, presuming that’s how they would go about things.
Could Jodie Comer Be Playing Jim And Selena’s Daughter?
This bit of speculation takes its inspiration from nothing, really, since at no point in this franchise was it implied that Jim and Naomie Harris’ Selena ever had kids once they were “saved,” as it were at the end of the first film. No surprise there, since Selena had a partner in Noah Huntley’s Mark, who tragically got infected later on. And in fact, Selena was the one character from the film who did appear in the 28 Days Later comic series that was published from 2009-2011, and she was neither with Jim nor with child.
But we’re not going to act like that comic series was 100% canon, especially since it’s not fully clear how much of the second film’s story is canonized within Boyle and Garland’s universe. On a theoretical scale, though, it’s definitely possible that Jim and Selena formed a bond that went beyond just friendship, and that, despite all odds, they managed to start a family in the middle of the apocalypse. Maybe not likely exactly, but possible.
Because let’s think practically for a moment. If Jodie Comer & Co’s characters aren’t directly related to one or more survivors introduced in the first two films, then why not share a character name and simple synopsis for each? It wouldn’t be spoilery if we learned that she’s playing someone named Rashida Dinklemeyer or Ingrid Gallo, and would only tip the story’s hand if the names Hannah or Tammy came up. So for now, I’m staying hopeful that we’ll be catching up with old friends, as opposed to meeting all-new people.
28 Years Later is currently set to hit theaters on Friday, June 20, 2025.