I think most of us were a little surprised by last week’s news that a sequel was in development to I Am Legend, starring Will Smith and Michael B. Jordan. I Am Legend is one of Will Smith’s biggest blockbusters with a worldwide gross of $585 million but given the film’s conclusion, some of us were left wondering how Smith could even be involved. While those secrets have yet to be revealed, Smith is detailing that it was Michael B. Jordan’s pitch that finally convinced him to get moving on a sequel.
During a chat with Entertainment Tonight, Smith said he was adamant that a sequel couldn’t be made but his mind was changed purely by Jordan’s idea for the film, although he couldn’t disclose what that idea happened to be just yet:
“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.”
I Am Legend was released in 2007 and was an adaptation of the Richard Matheson novel of the same. The film tells the story of scientist Robert Neville (Smith), who finds himself as one of the last people on Earth, with the rest of the population mutated into ravenous vampires by a plague. Neville attempts to find a cure while trying to stay alive in a desolate New York City. (SPOILERS AHEAD JUST IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE FILM) Neville ultimately gives his life to try with a grenade to stop the vampires and save the cure for the plague. This was a change from Matheson’s original book and, in an alternate ending released on the two-disc special edition DVD in 2008, they followed the source material by having Neville survive and being reunited with other characters as they headed out to look for fellow survivors. This wasn’t the ending they used in the theatrical cut, however, so it will be interesting to see how they explain Neville’s survival in the sequel.
How do YOU think Will Smith will return in the I Am Legend sequel?