Zombie in 28 Years Later confirmed not to be Cillian Murphy

Cillian Murphy is due to return to reprise his role as Jim from 28 Days Later in the upcoming sequel but 'in a surprising way', so when we saw a zombie looking almost identical to the actor, we all thought the same thing.

The trailer for 28 Years Later, the third installment of the 28 Days Later film franchise, was released on Tuesday (December 10) and a one-second snippet from the clip showed an emaciated zombie rise among a field of flowers.

Immediately, online detectives put two and two together and seemingly answered five.

Here is how fans reacted over on Reddit. One user posted: "Omg zombie Cillian Murphy!"

"The one second shot of Cillian Murphy is giving me a bone deep sense of terror," a second typed. "Seeing the 'hero' end up like that makes it feel more 'real' than a movie should have any right to lol."

While a third added: "We already know Cillian has a small part in this one, and a much bigger role in part 2. I'm guessing it's not a spoiler at all, we just don't have the proper context for it."

Yes, everyone thought that Murphy, who played Jim - a bicycle courier who wakes from a coma to find the UK had been ravaged by the undead in the first 2002 movie - featured this time as a dead version of the character.

I mean, who can blame them as Sony Motion Pictures chair Tim Rothman told Deadline that Jim would be back 'in a surprising way and in a way that grows, let me put it that way'.

Now, the Guardian has revealed that the the Irishman didn't actually feature in the two-minute-11-second trailer and the zombie everyone thought was the 48-year-old was actually an art dealer.

Angus Neill specializes in trading old masters - which refers to original prints of any painter of skill who worked in Europe before the 19th century.

He is somewhat of a newcomer to the sport of acting, although he does work as a model with his profile suggesting he dons a minuscule 28-inch waist.

Speaking to the UK-based newspaper, Neill explained how he was scouted by director Danny Boyle for the role.

“Danny told me he’d always had me in mind for the role,” he said. "So we met up, hit it off, and I agreed to take part.

“On set he has an extraordinary ability to hypnotise you, and working with him on the film was a very, very intense experience.”

Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Jodie Comer are set to star in the upcoming movie, as well as Jack O'Connell and Ralph Fiennes, while the latter previously stating that the film will be a trilogy in itself, with two of them having already been shot - 28 Years Later, and 28 Years Later Part II: The Bone Temple.

28 Years Later is set to be released on June 20, 2025.