'Bright': Is Will Smith's Character a Bright?

Bright opens up a whole world of mythology in its story of an alternate version of Los Angeles, which is populated with all sorts of fantasy creatures. In that world we get a lot of backstory and lore thrown at us, before plunging into the crime-caper tale that drives the film story.

Given how fast Bright moves, a lot of viewers may come away a bit confused about the overarching mythology of Bright, why it's so important to the revelation's of the movie's finale, and the implications for the now-confirmed Bright sequel.

Unlikely Brights

The first question at hand is: Is Will Smith's character, Daryl Ward, actually a Bright? And the answer is: kind of.

In the mythos (specifically the "History of Magic" prelude) it's laid out that after the ancient times of magic wielded by the likes of Sargon the Great and the Dark Lord, magic was disseminated into magic wands created from Sargon's corpse, which could only be used by "Brights," who could handle the magical power of the wand without having their physical forms destroyed by it.

In the history of Brights, there have been several anomalies: the mythic Orc hero Jirak and a few select humans. It's the latter case that applies to Ward, as human Brights are described as being "one in a million," suggesting that they are of special distinction among the Brights.

So is Ward a Bright? Yes, but not just any Bright. He's something more, and we have yet to discover the full depth of what it means to be a human Bright.

The Chosen Brights

One thing that is underplayed in the climax of Bright is that it's not just the reveal that Ward is a human bright that's of importance - it's that both Ward and Jakoby are positioned as mythic Brights of great importance, in the inevitable war against the resurrected Dark Lord.

We've already broken down how Ward's status as a human Bright fulfills a sort of "chosen one" role in the Bright universe; however, the Orcs have their own chosen one prophecy, which is seemingly fulfilled when Tikka resurrects Jakoby, making the various orc gangs view him as the second coming of Jirak.

As legend tells, Jirak was an unblooded Orc farmer who rose up to unite the Nine Armies against the Dark Lord, and founded the Shield of Light. Jirak was said to be the embodiment of some yet-to-be-specified Orc prophecy, which Jakoby will seemingly now manifest.

Rise of the Super Cops

The Bright sequel already has a lot of story to cover, but one of the main pieces of intrigue will be seeing how Ward and/or Jakoby fare, once their respective magical abilities begin to manifest. The pair have already been targeted by everyone form fellow cops to various Orc gangs for their interspecies partnership: so how will the same forces react if/when it's discovered that both Ward and Jakoby are potential walking WMDs.

Right now, it's implied that Ward could be the prominent lead in magical ability, which would create a nice role-reversal for the sequel. If Ward is a "one in a million" human oddity, then he may end up being even more discriminated against than Jakoby was. Wouldn't that be ironic...

Bright 2 has no release date yet.