I Am Legend: Will Smith Breaks Silence on Michael B. Jordan Sequel

I Am Legend is reportedly close to getting a sequel. Will Smith shared the news himself at the Red Sea Film Festival. Variety reports that the star is also in talks with Michael B. Jordan to be a part of the I Am Legend sequel. Funnily enough, Smith talked about the widely-discussed alternate ending to the movie. In that version, Smith’s character doesn’t survive, but there is a hopeful note for humanity at the end. (This ending is actually more true to the source novel than the theatrical release is.) Jordan is a hot name in Hollywood right now and must be pretty intrigued by the I Am Legend sequel if he’s taking meetings with Smith about it this early in development. THere’s no timetable for when the follow-up would film. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actor’s plate is looking pretty full with filming for Bad Boys 4 looming. Here’s what he had to say.

“I am having a call tomorrow with Michael B. Jordan about [‘I Am Legend’],” Smith explained to the crowd. “You have to be a real ‘I Am Legend’ buff to know this, but in the first, theatrical version, my character dies, but on the DVD there was an alternate version of the ending where my character lived. We are going with the mythology of the DVD version. I can’t tell you anything more, but Michael B. Jordan is in.”

Debating I Am Legend’s Ending

Not too long ago, the film’s director Francis Lawrence talked about that controversial alternate ending. On the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the filmmaker discussed the original conclusion to the movie. Decision-makers were afraid that ending I Am Legend with Smith’s character dying might have been too much of a downer note for people to walk out of the theater on. But, for Lawrence, he would have been fine with either approach. The director pointed to other adaptations of this story that stayed closer to the original Richard Matheson novel.

“I prefer the original ending to the two that we have. But the truth is now I would’ve built it do be able to do the ending from the novella, truly just do that story,” Lawrence recently recalled to the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “But with the money being spent, everybody was nervous about doing something so nihilistic. But looking back I feel like everybody went to see The Last Man on Earth and enjoyed it for that reason and would’ve still enjoyed [I Am Legend] with the nihilistic ending.”

A Big Source Of Inspiration For The I Am Legend Sequel

A recent horror franchise will be a big inspiration for I Am Legend the next time it hits the big screen. Akiva Goldsman talked to Deadline about how The Last of Us might help provide a blueprint for I Am Legend‘s sequel. The PlayStation juggernaut has conquered gaming and TV. So, movies are the next logical step for whatever’s next. A post-apocalyptic world is always going to draw some comparisons to what came before it. I Am Legend will be no different in that regard. Check out what the writer had to say down below! 

“This will start a few decades later than the first,” he revealed. “I’m obsessed with The Last of Us, where we see the world just post-apocalypse but also after a 20-30-year lapse. You see how the earth reclaims the world, and there’s something beautiful in the question of, as man steps away from being the primary tenant, what happens? That will be especially visual in New York. I don’t know if they’ll climb up to the empire state building, but the possibilities are endless.”

Do you think this sequel sounds promising? Let us know down in the comments!