‘I am the mammoth 6ft 8 zombie in 28 Years Later and I had to be carried off set’

42-year-old Chi Lewis-Parry, a heavyweight MMA fighter from Hertfordshire shares that one scene demanded so much of 110kg man that he had to be carried off set in a state of exhaustion

MMA fighter Chi Lewis-Parry plays a haunting “alpha zombie” in Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later films – but all 6 foot 8 and 110kg of the actor is real and all it took was a movement coach to perfect his haunting performance.

In the first 2025 sequel to the 28 Days Later franchise starring Cillian Murphy, Lewis-Parry was told to “terrify” Boyle in his audition – and it clearly worked. Indeed, he instilled this same sweat-inducing fear into cinema-goers when the film was released.

His character, the “king of the Alphas”, or Samson, is often shot leering on the horizon, threatening to chase the “un-infected” down and removing their spines or “de-spinning” them. Samson is part of the post-apocalyptic United Kingdom ravaged by the blood-born Rage Virus that turns humans into zombies.

However, as a number of new variants arise over the years, an eccentric Dr Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) aims to restore some humanity to the infected by slowly sedating them – and that is one focus of the 2026 film – 28 Years Later – The Bone Temple.

Lewis Parry has his own take on what the variants mean. He told The Metro: “I saw it as you became what you are in your society. So if you are an alpha in your everyday life, then you are an Alpha as the infected. The traits and characteristics of the Infected didn’t necessarily change from when they were human, but they are fuelled by rage, so control is lost.”

In one scene, Samson is shown to be aware of his surroundings after ripping the skulls of a patrol of NATO soldiers. He said: ”I remember when we shot that, it wasn’t on the page. That was something we came up with. Danny just said, ‘I want to include something here that shows he is conscious, what do you think?’

“That’s his creative genius is he lets you talk about things because we all inspire each other. There’s no ego involved – and he literally just made it up on the day, based off our conversation.”

However, the train scene in The Bone Temple Samson’s train appearance is not one of gentle compassion – but of chaotic violence.

The scene required so much physicality from Lewis-Parry that he had to be literally carried off set at the end of the day – which is no small feat for an MMA fighter.

The brutal fight to the death with an infected on the train took an entire day of filming. Lewis-Parry told Dextero: “We shot that whole train scene in a day, it was from morning all the way to the ‘hero’ shot at nighttime. It was the whole day.

“I’d said, ‘OK, if we’re going to fit this into one day, I’ll let you know that I’m going to give you everything I’ve got. If you change your mind and say we’re doing stuff tomorrow, you cannot expect me tomorrow. I had to be carried out of there, I couldn’t walk. I was busted, man, like I was really battered and was limping my way out of that train.”

In the first film there was a lot of talk about one particular aspect of the Alpha Zombie – but Lewis-Parry put our minds to rest – assuring audiences the infected wear prosthetic genitals for both modesty and legal reasons, due to working with the then 12-year-old protagonist Alfie Williams who plays Spike.

Lewis-Parry said: “I never at any point thought I was going to be walking around in the nip.” The 42-year-old, from Hitchin, also worked with a movement coach to achieve his full potential as Samson.

Toby Sedgwick invented the iconic, stilted but unique sprint of the infected – differing to the slow amble of other franchise’s zombies. Lewis-Parry saw Samson as having “more control over the state that the infection puts him in, so that actually makes him more dangerous.”

“I felt like it looked like he was trying too hard, and I didn’t want him to be trying anything – everything he did was just incidental. So I started to look at legendary movement, people like Andy Serkis, who is, in my opinion, the greatest all time. I looked at how he moved.”

He was also inspired by horror films like Predator and the Wolf Man, adding: “[Samson’s] very predatory, but he’s not hiding the fact that he’s coming after you. He’s not trying to sneak up on you or conceal his presence. He’s just like, I’m running through this wall, and if you’re on the other side of it… The motive I gave him was that nothing will stop me.”

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is in cinemas now.