There’s a scene in “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple,” Nia DaCosta’s quick-fire sequel to last year’s horror franchise returnee “28 Years Later,” that’ll likely raise more than a few laughs in cinemas.

On top of an English hill, surrounded by woods — and potential danger — Ralph Fiennes‘ blood-and-iodine-smeared skull collector Dr. Ian Kelson sings Duran Duran’s sun-drenched ’80s smash “Rio” while dancing hand-in-hand with Samson, the film’s hulking, mutated and entirely nude lead Alpha zombie.

It’s a peculiar, not to mention hilarious sight, not least for a gory genre film. But for anyone who saw Sony Pictures’ “28 Years Later,” the scene marks a remarkable development for Samson — played by 6’8″ actor and former MMA fighter Chi Lewis-Parry — best remembered as “King of the Infected” in the first outing and a ferocious monster with a penchant for ripping heads off with spines still attached (and then swinging them about like a flail). DaCosta’s movie — in cinemas Jan. 16 — is a wholly different beast to Danny Boyle’s, with wildly new characters and storylines, but it’s the personal growth of Samson — and his budding bromance with Dr. Kelson — that offers one of its main talking points.

“I’m excited to see how people respond to that relationship, because it’s not something you would typically expect from these movies,” says Lewis-Parry, who notes that, having shot both films back-to-back, by the time they started on “The Bone Temple” he and Fiennes “were already mates.”

For the 42-year-old, who this year also appeared in “The Running Man,” “The Bone Temple” allowed him to flex his acting muscles much more than he had previously. Whereas in “28 Years Later” Samson was all Rage virus and excessive violence, this time he’s mostly seen sitting in near quiet, spaced-out contemplation (largely thanks to the oversized doses of morphine Dr. Kelson frequently injects him with).

“I’ve always been very physical, but I just never really had the chance to do something with such depth. I knew there was a huge responsibility, but it was also a massive opportunity,” he says. “I wanted to be able to turn on the Rage side, but then also immediately turn it off. So I’m glad that there’s a nice marriage of the two, but both energies exist. I knew I had to tap into something.”

Unfortunately for Lewis-Parry, he had one of the U.K.’s most celebrated actors right next to him.

“You’re sitting there and you don’t have much to say, and Ralph Fiennes is there Ralph Fiennes-ing,” he recalls. “And you kind of get lost in his performance. I did catch myself just watching him and thinking, ‘In fact, I’m supposed to be doing something — I need to step up!’”

The Duran Duran dancing scene was actually an improvisation on the part of Fiennes and not in the script.

“There was a take where he just took my hand and was looking at me and was like, ‘Come on then,’ and I just went with it,” says Lewis-Parry. “The whole performance was Ralph’s and it was just one of those moments. We could have taken it or not, and we chose to take it and it got used. And I think that just shows the connection me and him had.”

It was, he acknowledges, “the most fun I’ve had naked.”

Which brings us to the nudity. Samson was undoubtedly one of the most talked about characters in “28 Years Later,” but it wasn’t just for his colossal build, monstrous roar or the gory manner in which he despatched any human in his path. There was also his manhood — a rather impressively-sized prosthetic that the cameras didn’t shy away from and caught the eye of many online commentators.

“It was to be expected,” acknowledges Lewis-Parry. “I’m not mad about it — not even now. But I don’t want to take away an ounce of credibility from the immense work that everyone put into into these films. Everyone is incredible. And I don’t want Samson’s prosthetic to steal any of the shine.”

While there’s plenty of new additions to be excited about in “The Bone Temple” — not least the performance of Jack O’Connell as a sadistic cult leader (particularly his scenes with Fiennes) — Samson’s prosthetic is very much on display again and quite prominently. But Lewis-Parry’s hoping whatever comedic titillation it sparked last time around will have died down — with the focus now on the filmmaking and craft.

Samson’s full prosthetic body suit — appendage attached — took seven people around six to eight hours to fit on him each time, he claims. “So you’d start around 2 a.m., and then after 10-hour days with potential overtime, you might finish around 9 p.m.” While the prosthetic pieces were bigger in “28 Years Later,” in “The Bone Temple” — featuring more close-up shots of a (heavily sedated) Samson — he says it was “with a lot more veins, so more detail.”

The whole process of fitting Samson’s prosthetics and painting over them was a “tremendous workload,” he says, but it was one that had to be done more than 25 times for days requiring full-body shots (each suit, effectively glued onto him, was one-time use only). But there were also scenes where Samson was just seen from the waist up. Given the rather low temperatures where they were shooting in the North of England, Lewis-Parry says “those were great days.”

A third “28 Years Later” film was recently given the go-ahead by Sony, with Alex Garland again writing the script and Cillian Murphy reportedly set to star. Lewis-Parry has little idea whether Samson will return — “as much as you want to know, I want to know!” — but says that, even if time’s up for one of the horror world’s most fearsome new arrivals, he’s just glad to have gotten to play a role that sparked such a reaction.

“You do many characters and you never revisit them. But this is a character I have a relationship with — so I care about how he’s perceived,” he says. “That could be seen as silly, but I care about the characters so I care about what I’m putting into it. I really wanted him to be well received, so I’m elated that he is.”