28 Years Later Director Recalls ‘Nightmare’ of Shooting Naked Zombie Scenes amid Intimacy Coordinator’s Notes (Exclusive)

Danny Boyle, the director of 28 Years Later, is recalling his “nightmare” surprise going into filming.

The post-apocalyptic thriller follows a group of survivalists living amongst those infected by the Rage virus. 28 Years Later is the third film in the zombie-apocalypse franchise, which includes 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later.

Since the film takes place 28 years following society’s exposure to the virus, Boyle told PEOPLE at the film’s premiere in London on Wednesday, June 18 that, realistically, there wouldn’t be any clothing left on the victims of the virus.

“I mean, if you’re recently infected, you’d have some clothes, but if you’ve been infected for a long time, the clothes would just disintegrate with the way that you behave,” Boyle tells PEOPLE.

However, with the now 14-year-old Alfie Williams playing the key role of Spike, the son of Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s character Jamie, fully naked people were not allowed on the film’s set under the Child Sex Offenses Act, Boyle said he learned.

“We never knew that going in, it was a nightmare,” Boyle says.

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“Interestingly, because there was a 12-year-old boy on set, you’re not allowed for anybody to be naked, not really naked, so they look naked, but it’s all prosthetics,” Boyle explains.

During a conversation with the intimacy coordinator working on the set, Boyle said he was made aware that no one was allowed to be naked on set with an underage child actor present since it would violate the act.

“So it’s like, ‘Oh my God,’ so we had to make everybody prosthetic genitals,” Boyle says.

Back in 2003, Boyle teamed up with screenwriter Alex Garland to produce the first film in the zombie thriller franchise, which starred Cillian Murphy. Boyle and Garland took more of a backseat role as producers in the second installment of the series, 28 Weeks Later, but in January, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the duo would be returning for what would mark the start of an entirely new trilogy.

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“We’re making, hopefully, three more 28 films with the first one called 28 Years Later,” producer Andrew Macdonald said during the Edinburgh International Film Festival in August 2024, per THR. “Then we’re just about to start, tomorrow morning, actually, part two. And then we hope there’s going to be a third part and it’s a trilogy.”

28 Years Later hits theaters June 20.