I Am Legend is one of the most awesome post-apocalyptic movies that we have gotten to see from Will Smith. The movie hit hard with the audience but the biggest problem with it has to be the ending. Fans have been criticizing the ending for ruining the narrative that it was actually going for. The movie didn’t do well critically and fans were expecting that it would do justice to the source material, Richard Matheson’s book of the same name. But it seems after 15 years we are going to get a sequel with Will Smith set to return with Michael B. Jordan joining. This could mean that the movie might be taking into consideration the alternate ending of the original movie as that’s probably how Will Smith will return in I Am Legend 2.
I Am Legend
One of the biggest problems with I Am Legend was with the official ending of the movie. With Robert Neville dying, it ends up reducing the chances of a possible sequel. The book dealt with this moment in a completely different manner. According to the book, Neville realizes moments before being killed that he was the boogeyman. He had managed to become a monster for the new species. This actually explains why he ended up being the legend according to the title. But the movie sees the character sacrificing himself with the rest of the monsters in order to save Anna and Ethan.
Over the years there have been many reports of a possible sequel or a prequel to the project. It was even being considered to be adapted for a TV series that would not be canon to the movie. In a 2008 interview, Will Smith talked about the prequel as:
We have a fantastic prequel idea…we’re still trying to work through a couple of bumps in the story. It’s essentially the fall of the last city – the last stand of Manhattan. The movie would be…within the body of the movie D.C. and then Manhattan would fall as the last city. It’s a really cool idea trying to figure it out…there’s a reason why we have to take a small band and we have to get into D.C. So we have to make our way from New York to D.C. and then back to New York.
I Am Legend 2 Adds Michael B. Jordan To The Franchise
I Am Legend 2 has been announced to be under development. Black Panther star Michael B. Jordan has joined the cast with Will Smith returning for the sequel. Smith shared a photo that teases this sequel and tagged Jordan to the post. The movie will be based on a script penned by Akiva Goldsman for Warner Bros. There have been no reports of the director attached to the project yet. Goldsman had written the original script based on the 1954 novel with the same title. John and Elizabeth Raposo will be producing the film under their banner Outlier Society.
It was only last year that Smith was drawing parallels between his movie and the COVID-19 pandemic. During his appearance on Red Table Talk, he mentioned how the original movie had helped him prepare for such a circumstance. The actor stated:
I wanted to do this because in 2008 I made I Am Legend so I feel responsible for a lot of the misinformation.
There was a basic foundational comprehension of viruses and viral pathogens. It really changed my life and how I looked at the world. There’s basic concepts that people do not understand.
How Will Smith Will Return in I Am Legend 2
Considering the actor will be returning to the movie, we can assume that the alternate ending to the movie might end up being canon to the narrative. This ending actually sees Neville survive. He comes to learn that the cure he was working on actually works and finds out that the monsters aren’t actually mindless creatures. But he does end up having guilt considering he had killed a lot of the Darkseekers while trying to cure them. He joins in with Anna and Ethan as they leave for Vermont. This ending could clearly explain how Smith’s character might end up returning.
Another possible means could be through flashbacks for the character of Michael B. Jordan. We might see him discover Neville’s work and through that pave the way for Will Smith to make a return. This is definitely going to be an interesting watch considering these two starts haven’t collaborated before. At a time when sequels rule the box office, fans can finally mark I Am Legend as the one that got a sequel. With the writer returning from the original, let’s hope the mistakes from the first film aren’t repeated again.
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