"A thousand years from now, there will be no guys and no girls – just wankers," mused Ewan McGregor's Renton in the original Trainspotting. "Sounds great to me." It's not quite been a full millennium since we last saw Rent Boy, Spud (Ewen Bremner), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller) and Begbie (Robert Carlyle), but times have certainly changed for the Scottish heroes of Irvine Welsh's creation and Danny Boyle's cinematic realisation – as you can see from this exclusive shot of the much-anticipated sequel, taken from the new issue of Empire.
“It’s just more interesting that it’s 20 years later,” says producer Andrew Macdonald. “In movie terms, ten years earlier felt like a couple of days after.” Two decades on and Renton is looking to make amends with the friends he royally screwed over. That time gap is important, according to Macdonald: “The worst thing will be if it feels like a film from 1996 as opposed to a film from 2017.”
T2: Trainspotting arrives in cinemas on 27 January, 2017. The new issue of Empire, meanwhile, is on the shelves now, and features plenty more info on the Trainspotting sequel – plus much more movie goodness beyond. Probably worth subscribing to Empire if you want to get your copy before everyone else, with subs-only covers...