Movies about undead or infected monsters have been around for many decades, but many have connected 28 Days Later and the video game The Last of Us. Director Danny Boyle is among them, as he said in a new interview that he likes to joke that he and writer Alex Garland deserve a piece of the royalties for The Last of Us and The Walking Dead for inspiring those works.
Speaking to IndieWire, Boyle said one of the reasons why he and Garland decided to make a third entry in the series, 28 Years Later, was because of the ongoing popularity of the undead genre thanks to The Last of Us and The Walking Dead.
“It was clear that it had sustained its popularity. Not only the original film, but obviously the stuff like that that builds on the popularity of the idea. We always used to joke that we wish we’d got a percentage of The Walking Dead and The Last of Us and all this kind of stuff,” he said.
Released in 2002, 28 Days Later stars Cillian Murphy as a man who wakes up from a coma and learns that a contagious virus has decimated society. The Last of Us, meanwhile, follows the outbreak of a fungus that also causes society to collapse and become overrun with monsters.
Garland, who wrote the scripts for 28 Days Later and 28 Years Later, previously said he thinks The Last of Us is a better piece of art than 28 Days Later–or at least the writing is.
“The thing about The Last of Us was I was like, ‘Oh this is like so much more sophisticated and moving.’ I’m not dissing 28 Days Later. It’s a nice part of my life. But seriously, The Last of Us is on another level.”
28 Years Later is in theaters now and has already made more than $60 million worldwide. The post-apocalyptic horror movie stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Alfie Williams, Jodie Comer, and Ralph Fiennes.
As for The Last of Us series, Naughty Dog’s franchise debuted in 2013, with a sequel coming in 2020. It’s been reported that a third game is now in the works, but Naughty Dog has not confirmed this. HBO’s The Last of Us TV series, meanwhile, is coming back for a third season.
