According to Deadline, Warner Bros. has expressed an interest in snagging Steven Caple Jr. (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) to direct I Am Legend 2, which will star Will Smith and Michael B. Jordan. The outlet notes that it’s still in the early stages, and no deal has been drafted, but it would make for a fun reunion as Caple Jr. directed Jordan in Creed II.
Akiva Goldsman, who is writing and producing I Am Legend 2, recently said, “There will be some good news shortly” about the sequel. He wrote a second draft for the project after meeting with Smith and Jordan, and while he didn’t spill any story details, he did say, “The world returns in a way that is kind of spectacular — an exciting playground for all of us — not your father’s I Am Legend.“
Loosely based on Richard Matheson’s novel of the same name, I Am Legend starred Will Smith as a U.S. Army virologist who struggles to develop a cure for a virus that has wiped out most of mankind while also defending himself from a bunch of nocturnal mutants. While the theatrical version ended with the death of Smith’s character, the sequel will go with the alternate ending in which he survived.
Last year, Goldsman told Deadline that the sequel would take place a “few decades” after the first movie. “I’m obsessed with The Last of Us, where we see the world just post-apocalypse but also after a 20-30-year lapse. You see how the Earth reclaims the world, and there’s something beautiful in the question of, as man steps away from being the primary tenant, what happens? That will be especially visual in New York,” Goldsman said. “I don’t know if they’ll climb up to the Empire State Building, but the possibilities are endless. We trace back to the original Matheson book, and the alternate ending as opposed to the released ending in the original film. What Matheson was talking about was that man’s time on the planet as the dominant species had come to an end. That’s a really interesting thing we’re going to get to explore. There will be a little more fidelity to the original text.“
Could you see Steven Caple Jr. as the director of I Am Legend 2?