Alex Garland Credits ‘The Last of Us’ for Inspiring ’28 Years Later’

LOS ANGELES, March 13, 2025 — Screenwriter Alex Garland has credited the influence of the acclaimed video game ‘The Last of Us‘ in shaping his upcoming film, ‘28 Years Later.’ In a conversation with Neil Druckmann, the creator of ‘The Last of Us,’ Garland expressed how the narrative depth of the game prompted him to raise his own writing standards.

During the ‘Creator to Creator’ podcast, Garland stated, “I was so inspired by your work. ‘The Last of Us’ is better than ‘28 Days Later.’ The thing about ‘The Last of Us,’ I was like, this is so much more sophisticated. It was very nice for me with ‘The Last of Us’ to sort of feel like someone saying, ‘Where’s your game?’”

Garland, who also wrote the original ’28 Days Later’ released in 2002, reflected on the thematic parallels between his new project and ‘The Last of Us,’ acknowledging the latter’s impact on storytelling in video games. “I think there is something slightly irreverent or slightly punk somewhere in what I do,” Garland noted, emphasizing his evolving creative process.

As he crafts the narrative for ’28 Years Later,’ Garland has shifted the focus from purely zombies to a broader exploration of societal challenges within the story. He described an early version of the plot that involved the Chinese Special Forces entering a quarantined UK to combat a weaponized virus, which faced skepticism from director Danny Boyle.

“I had this really odd idea [for ‘28 Years Later’],” Garland recalled. After initially receiving lackluster feedback from Boyle, he decided to completely restructure the story, incorporating elements reminiscent of ‘The Last of Us.’ “I thought I should be much stranger with this, much odder, so I made a different story, which in truth has a ‘Last of Us’ connection,” he explained.

Druckmann reciprocated Garland’s respect, acknowledging how iconic ’28 Days Later’ had served as inspiration while developing the narrative for ‘The Last of Us.’ “There’s a direct line between the fast infected in ’28 Days Later’ and the infected in ‘The Last of Us,’” he detailed. “It’s like, they’re sick, they’re not rising from the dead, they move quickly.”

Garland expressed satisfaction with his current creative direction, stating, “I was pleased not to be the director [of ’28 Years Later’]. I’d been the director for a few years and I was sort of done with it.” He highlighted the collaborative experience of co-directing with Ray Mendoza as an easing of his previous burdens.

As anticipation builds for the release of ’28 Years Later’ scheduled for June 20, 2025, Garland and Druckmann reflected on their impactful legacies in storytelling. Druckmann affirmed the significant potential that video games have for narrative depth, saying, “I’ve always believed games are capable of so much more than people are giving them credit for.”

The full conversation between Garland and Druckmann is available on the podcast, further showcasing their engaging dialogue about the evolution of storytelling in both film and video games.