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Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson & Ralph Fiennes To Star In ‘28 Years Later’ For Danny Boyle And Sony Pictures

EXCLUSIVE: The new 28 Years Later trilogy from director Danny Boyle and Sony Pictures is gaining momentum, and some serious star power. Sources tell Deadline that Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes have boarded the first pic, a sequel to the original 28 Days Later.

Boyle is directing the first movie from a script by Alex Garland. Sony will release the film in theaters globally.

While plot details are vague, the original 28 Days Later in 2002 centered on a bicycle courier (played by Cillian Murphy) who wakes from a coma to discover the world had been overrun with zombies following the outbreak of a virus. The pic grossed more than $82 million worldwide and led to a 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later, on which Boyle and Garland served solely as EPs.

Deadline recently broke the news that the studio has already tapped Candyman director Nia DaCosta to helm the second part of the trilogy, and that the plan is to shoot both films back to back. As for the three newest cast members, the studio is clearly showing it means business, adding star power instead of going the lesser-known-actor route like in previous installments.

Boyle and Garland are also producing 28 Years Later, as is original producer Andrew Macdonald and Peter Rice. Bernie Bellew is also producing. Murphy is also returning as an executive producer.

Following her star-making and Emmy-winning role in Killing Eve, Comer has stayed busy on the feature film side, starring in such films as Free Guy opposite Ryan Reynolds and in Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel. Next up, she can be seen in Focus Features’ The Bikeriders opposite Tom Hardy and Austin Butler.

For Taylor-Johnson, the job continues his strong partnership with Sony following a scene-stealing role in Bullet Train as well as the upcoming Marvel pic Kraven the Hunter. Next up, he’s in the Universal tentpole The Fall Guy that bows next week and also stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. He also has Focus’ gothic horror pic Nosferatu bowing this Christmas.

The Oscar-nominated Fiennes is currently finishing a 4-city International run of the sold out play, Macbeth in Washington, DC. The play was performed in Liverpool, London, and Edinburgh to sold out audiences in every city and to rave reviews He finishes his run in DC on May 5th. This fall he stars in two films, Conclave directed Edward Berger which will be released by Focus features and The Return directed by Uberto Pasolini opposite Juliette Binoche which will be released by Bleecker street.

Comer is repped by Independent Talent Group, WME and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole. Fiennes is repped by 42 and CAA. Johnson is repped by WME, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and David Weber.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson Rumored to Have Been Offered Role as Next James Bond

Is Aaron Taylor-Johnson going to be the next James Bond?

A new report from U.K. newspaper The Sun, claims the British actor, 33, is set to take over the role from Daniel Craig, who played the character for 15 years.

The outlet reported that insiders said Taylor-Johnson will sign the contract this week after he was formally offered the role.

PEOPLE has contacted representatives for Taylor-Johnson and the James Bond franchise for comment.

“Bond is Aaron’s job, should he wish to accept it. The formal offer is on the table and they are waiting to hear back,” a source reportedly told The Sun.

“Aaron is going to sign his contract in the coming days and they can start preparing for the big announcement,” the insider added.

Rumors that Taylor-Johnson would be the next James Bond began swirling following Daniel Craig’s exit. However, the Marvel actor — who is married to director Sam Taylor-Johnson — dodged the claims during an interview with Esquire in 2023 by stating he had “to go by the beat of my own drum.”

“It’s my own path, what feels intuitive to me,” he added. “I’ve never made a decision based on other people’s perspectives, or their judgments, or their expectations of me.” Craig, 56, revealed in 2019 that No Time To Die, which was released in 2021, would be his last James Bond movie.

During an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Craig confirmed that he was laying down Bond’s Walther PPK after Colbert asked, “Are you done with Bond,” to which Craig replied, “Yes.”

“It’s done,” he added.

The actor also opened up to The Sunday Times in 2019 about his journey being James Bond.

“This may be hard to believe but I love the fact I’m Bond,” he said at the time. “We’re in rare air, making Bond movies. It is one of the most intense, fulfilling things I’ve ever done, but it takes a lot of energy and I’m getting old. I’m getting creaky.”

Meanwhile, in October 2023, James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli spoke about the future of the franchise following Craig’s exit.

“I think these movies reflect the time they are in, and there’s a big, big road ahead reinventing it for the next chapter and we haven’t even begun with that,” she told The Guardian at the time.

Taylor-Johnson on scent, swan dives and embracing fear

The Bullet Train star’s debut fragrance campaign perfectly embodies his adventurous spirit and approach to self-care

Rogue fire alarms and building works couldn’t keep Aaron Taylor-Johnson from sharing his affinity for slow living and the outdoors.

With three films slated for release this year, it’s clear that downtime is a rarity these days for the 33-year old actor. “I don’t know what a day off is anymore,” says Taylor-Johnson, laughing. “If I’m home in the countryside, I’m either gardening or cooking, or taking long walks. It makes me feel grounded.” He’s speaking to me today from the luxurious surroundings of his suite in Claridge’s. “My job takes me all around the world; I get to meet new people and I get to do the thing that I’ve always dreamt about as a kid,” he continues. “I never lose sight of how exciting it is. But to avoid burnout, I think the most relaxing thing to do is just being immersed in nature.”

His latest project as Giorgio Armani’s new Acqua di Giò ambassador took him to the hills of Croatia, where Taylor-Johnson found himself training with an Olympian to finesse his swan dive. But impressive campaign imagery aside, how does he really feel about fragrance?

“Perfume evokes such a powerful response for most people. It’s another layer to your skin; it’s your personality, it’s the way you walk into a room and the way you leave the room. There’s an aura around you,” he explains. For a man who’s passionate about nature, Acqua Di Giò, with its aquatic notes, fits his personality to a tee.

“It’s a refreshing, rejuvenating scent that is like the salt in the sea, the minerals of the sea,” says Taylor-Johnson, who finds the citrus elements in Acqua di Giò reminiscent of Sicilian lemon groves. “It really transports you straight to a place of joy and bliss.”

His approach to scenting is subtle, preferring instead to have “people lean in” rather than overpower a room. It’s clear that the seaside is a special place for the Bullet Train actor. “What I get from being in the ocean is very much a feeling of cleansing one’s soul,” he muses. “It feels very much like a ritualistic thing. When you dive in deep and you’re coming back up, you feel alive.”

Rituals are a recurring theme during our conversation. Taylor-Johnson notes that he likes “having a routine, because ironically, structure gives you the freedom to be you”. He’s a fan of early starts, rising at 5.30am for a 10-to-20 minute meditation before heading to the gym, doing the school run and starting the work day.

“That time for myself is beneficial for my clarity. I’m super creative, my head’s constantly going, so it feels like a way to reset and be calm, so that I can be on-point for my kids and everybody else.” His grooming routine is equally grounded, focusing instead to keep things au naturel save for hair oil in his curls (his signature haircut is often courtesy of hairdresser Daniel Erdman). “I enjoy growing out my hair. It feels like I’m not conforming. I like to be outside the box, there’s a little bit of fluidity and freedom to it.”

What’s on the inside matters too, of course, and Taylor-Johnson has a flourishing farm in rural Somerset. “I grew up with a very poor diet. Only later in life did I enjoy cooking and I love the ingredients,” he tells me. “They’ve got to be fresh and organic. I have a vegetable garden and I’m going to add some chickens for fresh eggs.”

A nourishing diet, coupled with plenty of hydration and, of course, dedicated fitness hours are all integral to the physicality of the roles he takes on from the assassin Tangerine in Bullet Train to the titular character in Marvel’s upcoming Kraven The Hunter. It’s a good thing Taylor-Johnson leans into the adventurous, as captured by his Acqua di Giò campaign. “There’s a liberating feeling of diving into the unknown. I also wanted to convey that narrative for Acqua di Giò; it’s breaking the mould, breaking the boundaries, and just taking that leap of faith,” he says. Jumping off a cliff takes courage, but that’s just what drew Taylor-Johnson in. “It was part of me saying, can I try something that’s a little bit scary? You’ve got to have a little bit of fear.”

Next on his bucket list? “Parachute out of an aeroplane,” he says thoughtfully. Filmmakers, take note.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson Strips It Back

Aaron Taylor-Johnson wears many hats. The 32-year-old is an actor (since he was six years old), a father and husband, an occasional model, and when we hop on a call to talk about his latest campaign for Calvin Klein, an IT guy, too.

There’s a good ten or so minutes where the connection between my end in New York and his end in London is off. His voice is crackly and distorted, and we try to power through before Taylor-Johnson devises a quick solution: He hops off the conference platform, reconnects via a phone call, and is back in the game. “Is this any better?” he asks. It’s a thousand times better.

I’ve caught Taylor-Johnson in a time that he describes as “busy.” The week before, he was in Australia, where he’s been since the beginning of the year, finishing up shoots on The Fall Guy. Now, he’s just touched down in London, where he’s doing additional shoots on Kraven the Hunter before heading out to Prague to shoot Nosferatu. Between all of this, he’s making his debut in a Calvin Klein campaign for the brand’s spring 2023 collection, sporting jaw-grazing hair, boxer briefs, a denim jacket (sans shirt), and snazzy jeans—all with the kind of energetic magnetism that translates seamlessly from the big screen.

“I felt absolutely honored and flattered to have been invited to be a part of Calvin Klein’s men’s underwear,” he says. “I felt incredibly safe in the hands of Mert [Alas] and Marcus [Piggott], who I think are equally iconic photographers.”

The campaign is definitively stripped-back: no frills, no props, no color, even. Alongside fellow Calvin Klein ambassadors Michael B. Jordan, FKA Twigs, Kendall Jenner, and JENNIE, Taylor-Johnson is expressive and acrobatic; on his knees in one shot, standing tall in the next, a statue caught in contrapposto.

“I was almost taking that vulnerability and putting it into confidence,” he says. “It was great fun. I think there’s a level of nerves and expectations when you’re going to be photographed in your underwear, but quite honestly, I’ve only ever worn Calvins, so I just felt honored and thrilled to be part of it.”

Calvin Klein, a brand iconic in its simplicity, its minimalism, its timeless style, is a natural fit for Taylor-Johnson. In the same way that—and bear with this metaphor—underwear are the foundation upon which an outfit is built, Taylor-Johnson’s adaptability, his readiness to step into any role and play any character, is the heart and soul of his career. He describes his own style as “classic”: a pair of jeans, a nice white tee, and boots. Something versatile. Something comfortable. Something that is reliably unchanging.

“I tend to enjoy fashion and dressing up more through characters, when I’m getting ready for a role or I’m in the process of doing something,” he says. “That’s always a part of how I build characters. I work on the psychology, but I also work on the layering and the skin that they wear on the outside as well.”

Taylor-Johnson has worn the skin of a few centuries’ worth of men; he’s been a young John Lennon in Nowhere Boy, sporting vintage ‘50s get-ups that he likes best of all his characters’ wardrobes. He’s been an ostracized Russian socialite in Anna Karenina. And most recently, in Bullet Train, he’s been a deadly assassin, equal parts brutally lethal and charmingly witty, with a mustache as killer as his profession.

Taylor-Johnson laughs when I bring up that ‘stache, sharing that it was a stroke of his own genius—and pandemic-induced experimentation. “It was that facial hair boredom,” he says. “I just got very creative with trying different characters and looks. For that character, I think I tried two or three different beards, and I wore them for a week each. I got a lot of feedback from my family—they all think I’m ludicrously nuts.”

The result, fortunately, looked less than ludicrous, and more like the facial hair of a classy, gentleman killer. It’s a hard look to pull off, but Taylor-Johnson, with his classical features, does it effortlessly and confidently. It seems that’s how he does most things, though.

“I definitely feel like I’m someone who can express myself better in movement than I can in words, which is why I feel more comfortable as a performer,” he says. Things like dance bring him confidence; he finds himself drawn to nature, tells me he finds inspiration from being immersed in it as much as possible, and has taken an interest in regenerative farming and rewilding.

“The lessons you get from just seeing nature just do its thing—it’s really just this sitting back and observing situation, watching and listening and learning and wanting to evolve and grow,” he says. At this point, more than any other, I find myself glad Taylor-Johnson was able to play IT guy and fix the audio at the beginning of our call—the profound passion wouldn’t have been so palpable in his voice otherwise.

“I’m excited by many things, by many people around me,” he says. “But when you’re starting to observe more is when you can really have a chance to…grow.”

TWITTER IS GOING WILD OVER THE AARON TAYLOR-JOHNSON & JOEY KING CHEATING RUMORS

If the internet does one thing, it’s spread cheating rumors like wildfire. While 2022 was full of crazy pop-culture moments, the cheating allegations against Ned Fulmer and Adam Levine (never forget those memes) definitely sent the internet into a spiral. And now, just 18 days into 2023, a new rumored cheating bombshell has dropped. Hold onto your horses, it’s a ride.

On Jan. 17, TikTok creator @thekylemarisa posted a video reading an anonymous blind item about Aaron Taylor-Johnson and his Bullet Train costar, Joey King. According to the blind, Taylor-Johnson and King allegedly hooked up on the press tour for the film, and have continued their affair post-filming and press. The blind was accompanied by the related headline, “Joey King Serves Up A Daring Look At Bullet Train‘s Paris Photo Call.” Her Campus reached out to both Taylor-Johnson’s and King’s teams, but did not hear back by the time of publication.

Seeing as the blind comes from an anonymous source, it’s safe to say that all of the drama surrounding this rumor is completely alleged. Meaning: take it with a grain of salt — blind items are notoriously unreliable. Furthermore, neither King, Taylor-Johnson, nor his wife, Sam Taylor-Johnson, have spoken publicly about the claims. But this hasn’t stopped the comments section of Marisa’s video, or the sea of Twitter commentary, from chiming in and freaking out over the alleged infidelity.

While Joey King, 23, is unmarried, that isn’t the case for Taylor-Johnson. In fact, Taylor-Johnson’s marriage has been subject to internet scrutiny for quite some time — especially recently. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Sam Taylor-Johnson have been a topic of discussion due to their 23-year age gap, and the fact that Ms. Taylor-Johnson met Mr. Taylor-Johnson when he was just 18. The two were married in 2012, and have two children together as of Jan. 18, 2023.

Mix an apparent cheating rumor with an already controversial relationship, and you’ve got cause for a total internet freak-out. And while none of the parties involved have spoken out about the allegations, Twitter sure has a lot to say. So, until there’s comment on the claims, the internet will only continue to let this fire burn.