New I Am Legend Project Reportedly Being Developed

With its exploration of a virus that wipes out nearly all of humanity, the Will Smith-starring I Am Legend has returned to being a point of reference in pop culture in recent years in response to the coronavirus pandemic, but drawing comparisons to that sci-fi film might not be the only talk surrounding the concept, with a new report from The Hollywood Reporter noting that Warner Bros. might be working on a new project for the franchise. This news comes from a recent dissection about the partnerships between Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow, specifically in regards to properties Warner Bros. is “actively developing.” This breakdown includes Ready Player One, Sherlock Holmes, and I Am Legend, among others.

Other projects that the outlet confirms to be in active development are a bit more obvious, as they are franchises that have earned a number of reports about continuations, though news that a new project in the world of I Am Legend is being developed will take many by surprise, given that it’s been 15 years since the film hit theaters and very few updates on a potential franchise have been revealed.

The film was based on the 1954 novel of the same name by Richard Matheson and focuses on Smith’s Neville as seemingly the only human in New York City who managed to survive a deadly outbreak. At night, Neville must hide himself away from inhuman mutants who rove the city streets, who are the accidental result of an attempt to cure cancer. The concept was also adapted into the films The Last Man on Earth and The Omega Man.

What shape this I Am Legend project could take is anyone’s guess, whether that be a reboot, sequel, prequel, or TV series, but director of the 2007 film Francis Lawrence previously detailed why he had no interest in developing a follow-up project.

“[The studio] was really, really, really into coming up with something, and I just didn’t know how to do it,” the filmmaker shared with the Happy Sad Confused podcast in 2018. “I saw very quickly after the movie came out, and I went, ‘People came to see the last man on earth. We’ve done the last man on earth, he died at the end of the movie, we can’t do it again.’ But people weren’t in love with him as a character. It’s not Indiana Jones, like this kind of iconic character that you just want to see again and again and again.”

He added, “And it just felt forced to do a prequel. We would have been doing Contagion. And to do something that’s a follow-up either doesn’t have him in it, or you have to do something really dumb, which is, you know, ‘Scientists have taken his DNA and reanimated him somehow!’ And that would have been really dumb, and so I just kind of bowed out.”

Stay tuned for updates on the future of the I Am Legend franchise.

Are you hoping to see a new project in the I Am Legend series? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!