28 Years Later director Danny Boyle confirms he won’t go back to James Bond: “That ship has sailed”
This week, we’re going to head back to Danny Boyle’s vision of a post-apocalyptic world with 28 Years Later, over two decades since he introduced it to us with the groundbreaking horror, 28 Days Later. One franchise that he has no plans to revisit, however, is that of secret agents and global threats, when he came close to dishing out the final mission of Daniel Craig’s James Bond.
Before Cary Fukunaga got the gig of dealing with 007’s swan song with No Time To Die, Boyle was in line to direct the project before creative differences saw it fall apart. Now with a monumental movie franchise making its way over to Amazon, Business Insider asked if there was any chance of him revisiting it if the offer was there. While some fans might hope he’d say ‘never say never’ to the prospect, Boyle confirmed it as, well, never.
“That ship has sailed,” Boyle revealed when asked about the prospect. “The thing I regret about that is the script was really good,” he explained. “John Hodge is a wonderful writer.”
The script, as revealed in 2022, would’ve seen our favorite “relic of the Cold War” taking on a Russian threat, which fully embraced the prospect of Bond’s demise, which was written in Craig’s contract and remained in his final film. “I don’t think they appreciated how good that script was,” theorized Boyle. “And because they didn’t, we moved on, and that’s the way it should be.”
As for the future adventures of the world’s most beloved agent (sorry, Ethan), Boyle wishes nothing but the best. “Whatever happens with Bond going forward now is what it will be.” For now, you can look forward to seeing how Boyle handles rage-fuelled monsters instead of custom-made Martinis when 28 Years Later arrives in theaters on June 20. For every other exciting movie still making its way to 2025, check out our list here.
