About eleven months ago, it was announced that Warner Bros. and producer Akiva Goldsman‘s company Weed Road are working on a sequel to the 2007 Richard Matheson adaptation I Am Legend (watch it HERE), which will see Will Smith reprising the role of Dr. Robert Neville, now joined in the cast by an unspecified character played by Michael B. Jordan. This announcement has caused some confusion, as the version of I Am Legend that reached theatres ended with Neville sacrificing himself (using a grenade to blow up himself and the attacking “Darkseeker” creatures) to protect other characters. But that ending was actually a reshoot. The original ending was more low-key, with Neville making peace with the Darkseekers after realizing that he was the monster in the eyes of these creatures. That alternate ending was included on the special edition home video release of I Am Legend – and a couple days ago, Goldsman confirmed to Deadline that the I Am Legend sequel will pick up from the alternate ending where Neville survived, not the theatrical ending where he died.
Goldsman said, “(The sequel) will start a few decades later than the first. 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. 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.“
Speaking with Entertainment Tonight last year, Smith said that he never intended to make a sequel to I Am Legend, but it was Jordan who talked him into it. “The idea came up. I can’t talk about it yet. But it’s a really, really cool concept and [Michael B. Jordan] was a part of creating the idea. It was one of those I was gonna leave alone, and then I heard the idea. But that might work, I think we can do that.“
Directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Goldsman and Mark Protosevich that was based on the Matheson novel, I Am Legend had the following synopsis: Robert Neville, a brilliant scientist, is a survivor of a man-made plague that transforms humans into bloodthirsty mutants. He wanders alone through New York City, calling out for other possible survivors, and works on finding a cure for the plague using his own immune blood. Neville knows he is badly outnumbered and the odds are against him, and all the while, the infected wait for him to make a mistake that will deliver Neville into their hands.
What do you think of the I Am Legend sequel ignoring the theatrical ending and following the alternate ending instead? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.