Nia DaCosta attends the "Hedda" red carpet during the 20th Rome Film Festival at Auditorium Parco Della Musica on October 16, 2025 in Rome, Italy. Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text [This story contains spoilers for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.] Nia DaCosta is well aware of the narrative that's forming around her back-to-back critical darlings of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and Hedda. But she can only laugh at the notion that the critical and commercial underperformance of 2023's The Marvels fueled her to silence any persisting naysayers. DaCosta has previously admitted that her threefold MCU sequel to Captain Marvel, WandaVision and Ms. Marvel evolved beyond what she originally pitched and filmed, so she readied herself for what was to come during the November 2023 release. Related Stories Movies Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal and Daniel Day-Lewis Score Irish Film & TV Awards Nominations Movies Box Office: '28 Years Later' Falls to 'Avatar 3' With Soft $15M MLK Weekend Opening "It does seem like I reacted very strongly to the response of The Marvels. But it was really interesting because I was prepared for what The Marvels would be in terms of its release. So I guess therapy has worked on me because I felt quite okay about it," DaCosta tells The Hollywood Reporter. "Obviously, you want your films to be received well. This is an audience-driven medium. So when 28 came around, I definitely was like, 'Oh, I want to show what I can do.' It was important that the movie be great and that I love it." DaCosta accomplished her very mission as The Bone Temple - the Alex Garland-penned follow-up to his and director Danny Boyle's 2025 franchise relaunch, 28 Years Later - is now her most well-received film among both critics and audiences. DaCosta's installment offers a number of major developments that Boyle's trilogy capper will resolve at some point in the near future. (Spoilers ahead ...) For starters, Ralph Fiennes' Dr. Ian Kelson achieved a major breakthrough in terms of finding a cure for the Infected. His treatment of Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry) with a morphine cocktail and anti-psychotic medication dampened the infected Alpha's aggression and psychosis, returning him to a more lucid, human-like state in which he can communicate and recall memories from his childhood. DaCosta hesitates to say that Dr. Kelson has definitively found a cure, but Samson is no longer the infected Alpha he was at the start of this trilogy. "I was talking to Alex about it last night. I think I'm good to say that [Samson is] not fully cured, and the level that he is healed is permanent," DaCosta shares. "He's not what he was [at the start of the movie], but is he one of us? I don't know. But he's not what he was." The film ends with a coda that reintroduces Cillian Murphy's Jim, the star of Boyle and Garland's 2002 franchise launcher. He's still living at the same cottage in Cumbria that the audience last visited over two decades ago. The dynamic is noticeably different, though, as Naomie Harris' Selena and Megan Burns' Hannah are nowhere to be found. Instead, he's teaching his young daughter, Sam, about World War I and II when the now-former Jimmies, Spike (Alfie Williams) and Kelly (Erin Kellyman), near the property with Infected hot on their trail. Naturally, Jim and Sam decide to help, just as Selena had done for Jim all those years ago. So where are Selena and Hannah? DaCosta can't say. "[Jim] is definitely a father to a girl named Sam, and all those other questions will be answered in the next film," DaCosta says. "I know things. I literally cornered Alex last night at the premiere. I was like, 'So what's going on?' But I'm really excited about it. That's all I can say." Below, during a spoiler conversation with THR, DaCosta also discusses her showstopping Iron Maiden sequence, before revealing which recent collaborator she considered casting until she remembered they were already a part of the 28 franchise. *** When 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple came your way, you weren't too far removed from Candyman and The Marvels, both of which were sequels to other people's movies (as well as two TV series in the latter's case). Thus, I can't imagine you were itching to direct another sequel so soon after that. But was it one of those scenarios where you have to pursue an opportunity that involves Danny Boyle and Alex Garland? It was absolutely like that. But it's funny because Candyman and The Marvels were similar. I was like, "I can't not do these movies if they come across my desk." So this just felt like the right thing to do given that it's a weird and different kind of franchise. Hedda and now The Bone Temple are both critically acclaimed. Were you extra motivated coming out of your Marvels expe