Alex Garland’s Major Career Change Makes Us Way More Exited For 28 Years Later

Summary

• Alex Garland’s retirement from directing may actually benefit his upcoming horror sequel project, 28 Years Later.
• Garland’s focus on writing, his primary strength, could lead to a more impactful and successful film for 28 Years Later.
• Breaking his no-sequels rule, 28 Years Later marks a unique departure for Garland and sets the stage for potential success.

Alex Garland’s announcement that he intends to step back from directing duties is disappointing for his many fans, but is great news for his upcoming horror sequel project, 28 Years Later. Since his debut in 2014 with the acclaimed sci-fi thriller Ex Machina, Garland has established himself as one of the most exciting filmmakers in the industry. Subsequent Alex Garland movies like Annihilation, Men, and Civil War have all addressed provocative themes and displayed the director’s aptitude for handling complex characters and storylines. While his films haven’t always hit the heights of Ex Machina, Garland’s projects have helped set the standard – particularly in sci-fi.

However, despite the successful release of 2024’s Civil War, it appears Garland has become jaded with the movie-making process. After surprising fans with an announcement while promoting his latest movie, Garland reiterated his decision in an interview with The Guardian, declaring: “Nothing’s changed. I’m in a very similar state. I’m not planning to direct again in the foreseeable future.” For many filmmakers, such a drastic decision would signal the end of their career. However, as far as Garland is concerned, retiring from directing may actually extend his longevity and be a positive step for his zombie sequel, 28 Years Later.

Alex Garland’s Directing Retirement Will Help His 28 Years Later Writing

Although Garland has vowed to avoid directing movies in the future, he has made no such commitment around writing. Given that, before graduating to directing, he was primarily known as a novelist and screenwriter, not having the distraction of direction may actually help him focus on his primary area of strength – especially regarding 28 Years Later. Although details around the project are sketchy, the film will reunite original 28 Days Later director Danny Boyle with star Cillian Murphy and Garland, who will return as screenwriter.

Ordinarily, disillusionment with one aspect of the film industry might jeopardize future involvement in another area. However, as Garland has made clear, his issue is not with bringing stories to screen, but with the pressures of being involved at a directorial level. As he explained to The Guardian, citing Ex Machina‘s production as an example:

“The pressure doesn’t come from the money. It comes from the fact that you’re asking people to trust something that, on the face of it, doesn’t look very trustworthy.

“Alicia [Vikander] and Sonoya [Mizuno] are trusting that nudity is going to be dealt with thoughtfully and respectfully … [when] cinema leans towards not doing that.”

The fact that Garland has taken the decision to step back from directing duties means that he may feel more positively about 28 Years Later. This way, there is little chance of his antipathy towards other aspects of moviemaking crowding his creative process. Instead, the film will be unfettered by other frustrations and be a fair reflection of Garland’s vision. Given how important his ideas were to the first movie, this can only be a good thing for 28 Years Later‘s chances of success.

Alex Garland’s Best Projects Have Been As A Writer

Although his directing career has been impressive, it’s clear that Alex Garland’s greatest strengths lie as a writer. Not only did he write all four of his directed projects, but he is also responsible for penning several other successful movies. As well as 28 Days Later, Garland has written beloved sci-fi features like Sunshine and Dredd, and the heartbreaking drama Never Let Me Go. He was also an uncredited writer on the modestly successful 28 Days Later follow-up, 28 Weeks Later, and wrote the acclaimed TV sci-fi series Devs.

(Garland’s) scripts have a unique capacity to explore moral ambiguity and obscure philosophy, all well telling a gripping story.

The scale of Garland’s success shows that, while he has certainly made a major impact as a director, it is as a writer where he really shines. Especially within the sci-fi space, his scripts have a unique capacity to explore moral ambiguity and obscure philosophy, all well telling a gripping story. By making a clear move away from future directing projects, Garland can give himself the creative space to continue this impressive writing streak without fear of burn-out – something that should excite sci-fi fans in particular.

28 Years Later Needs Alex Garland To Succeed

Ensuring that Garland is in a positive space regarding his attitude to filmmaking is vital to the success of 28 Years Later. While Danny Boyle and Cillian Murphy’s involvement is a positive development, it is Garland who gave the original 28 Days Later story a prophetic immediacy that made it such a success on release. The combination of well-realized characters coupled with the innovation of “fast” zombies is widely credited with revitalizing the sub-genre, leading to future hits like Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead, I Am Legend, and World War Z.

Considering his impact on the first 28 film, securing Garland’s involvement in the follow-up feels essential. However, a further consideration is that 28 Years Later will likely need all hands at the creative pump to achieve success. After a nearly two-decade-long pause in the franchise, the film will have to pull out all the stops to justify itself, with a compelling story being an absolute cornerstone. Having Garland return to writing duties, without having to worry about additional directing projects outside of 28 Years Later, can only help the film in the long run.

28 Years Later Will Break Garland’s Sequel Rule

A further point of excitement for Alex Garland fans around 28 Years Later is that it will become the first movie in his resume to break his unofficial rule about sequels. His uncredited work on 28 Weeks Later aside, Garland has never made a sequel to any of his previous movies. In fact, he has historically expressed real skepticism about the prospect of returning to an old project, telling IndieWire in 2018:

”
Sequels are just not something I’m interested in doing. It’s like when you don’t like steak, you don’t make the decision not to eat steak, you just don’t eat steak. I just don’t do sequels.
”

Given that Garland had already gone back to 28 Weeks Later, his commitment to this rule seems unconvincing at best. However, the fact that he has now retired from directing means that 28 Years Later will be the first movie to officially break the streak of no Alex Garland sequels – something that immediately helps it stand out. Coupled with the fact that he will have no additional director responsibilities to juggle, the situation suggests that 28 Years Later can be a huge hit.

Sources: The Guardian, IndieWire