I Am Legend is arguably one of Will Smith’s best movies. The recent Oscar-winner plays Robert Neville, a lone scientist at the end of the world working on a cure for the Darkseekers, infected humans turned into vampire-like creatures. Based on the work of Richard Matheson, the film sees Neville struggling with the loneliness of isolation in an abandoned Manhattan home, with only his dog and mannequins for company. Smith gave a memorable performance, and the movie did well enough in theaters to warrant a sequel. But this was over ten years ago.
There had been a second installment announced once upon a time. There were even talks of a prequel film set before the Darkseeker outbreak. In a period where sequels were cranked out relentlessly, a new I Am Legend film would have been a shoo-in at the box office. Despite this, a new movie is just now being put together, after 15 years since the original film’s release. What took so long for I Am Legend 2 to happen?
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A Lack of Vision
Village Roadshow Pictures, Weed Road Pictures, Overbrook Entertainment, Heyday Films, Original Film
Following the success of I Am Legend, a prequel was announced with both Smith and director Francis Lawrence in talks to return. The determiner to acquiring the two was the script and whether the story would be enough to pull the two back in. The plot would see Robert Neville’s life before the fall of New York, culminating in a final stand against the infected. However, the project never took off. One of the reasons is the release of a film with a similar premise. Director Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion followed the spread of a deadly virus that kills millions. Cities across the country enter into a pandemic, with characters either quarantined or working to find a cure. Lawrence felt that releasing a new film based on the outbreak of a deadly virus would have “felt forced” and was at risk of piggybacking off of Soderbergh’s movie.
As for a direct follow-up, one of the reported reasons that I Am Legend 2 never happened, per HITC, was that Lawrence didn’t find any of the ideas presented worthy of his efforts. I Am Legend is a story about the last man on earth. Robert Neville was a man alone in a dead world. Even if there was a way to logically resurrect him, Lawrence had no interest in exploring the concept a second time.
Will Smith Wasn’t Interested
Village Roadshow Pictures
And then there was the issue of Smith’s return. The studio was keen on bringing Smith back, but there was no feasible way to do so after he dies in the original I Am Legend. A sequel would have needed to ret-con Neville’s demise in some way, either by substituting the theatrical ending with the alternate one that more closely resembles the ending of Richard Matheson’s novel or going with an outright cop-out. Lawrence discussed this idea on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in 2018:
Smith stated back in 2012, when asked about the film’s progress, that he was not involved in nor obligated to return for the sequel and did not see himself returning. His prime reason for this was his reluctance to be what he termed “the sequel guy.” The 2010s saw many sequels being ushered out one by one, only to be met with mediocre responses. In this period, most sequels weren’t made to advance story or build upon already established lore— they were cash grabs. Smith wanted to avoid sequels, with a few exceptions. He had cited his age as his primary reason, saying that he only had so many years left in him for action roles before he would have to switch to less physically-demanding parts. He didn’t want to waste whatever time he had left doing disappointing sequels when he could continue to diversify his portfolio.
The number of sequels Smith has returned for has been limited mainly to his more prominent franchise roles, such as Men in Black and Bad Boys. I Am Legend was not going to be an exception as Smith had rejected the idea of returning until Michael B. Jordan pitched him a worthwhile idea.
Current Phase of Production
Paramount Pictures, Skydance Media, Weed Road Pictures, Outlier Society, New Republic Pictures, Midnight Radio Productions
I Am Legend 2 from Warner Bros. is now in development with both Smith and Jordan set to produce and star in the film. So far, few details have been given about the project. Oscar-winner Akiva Goldsman, who penned the script for the 2007 film, has signed on to write the untitled sequel. Lawrence hasn’t signed on, though, and there is no word yet if he will do so. Jon Mone will also serve as one of the film’s producers, and he spoke of Jordan’s concept while attending the PGA awards:
A big question that fans are waiting to be answered is how will Smith’s character be reintroduced into the story? There’s a chance the original ending could be ret-conned with the better received alternate ending, which saw Neville surviving and arriving at the community of survivors. Ret-conning isn’t unheard of when it comes to sequels. The current Halloween trilogy ret-conned the entire Halloween franchise in 2018 by erasing all history after the original 1978 film and starting from scratch. The idea could work for I Am Legend 2 as well, if the idea is as good as Mone says it is. Perhaps Neville could be used in a series of flashbacks to advance the story. Either way, the picture will benefit from Smith’s return. The original film was a huge success with fans lauding it as one of Smith’s best. With the two committed actors behind the project, fans could be in for something special.
