Warner has reportedly hired a writer for I Am Legend 2, and Will Smith is being sought to return for the sequel, too…
A spoiler for the ending of I Am Legend lies within...
As pop culture heroes Ellen Ripley and Bobby Ewing know only too well, death is but a trifling inconvenience. And in spite of the mildly inconvenient demise of Will Smith’s character at the end of I Am Legend, Warner is reportedly looking for a way to write him back into a potential sequel.
This is according to stories over the weekend, which suggest that writer Arash Amel has been brought in to write an I Am Legend 2 script, with Will Smith acting as producer and possible star.
The 2007 I Am Legend movie, the third adaptation of Richard Matheson’s classic novel of the same name, received mixed reviews but did well at the box office, with Smith’s star quality and some taut direction from Francis Lawrence seeing the movie pull in a sum of $585 million.
Owners of I Am Legend on DVD or Blu-ray will perhaps have seen the originally intended ending, in which Smith’s character survives a basement onslaught of computer-generated mutants. It was a more intelligent, atmospheric conclusion, undoubtedly, but the studio opted for a more explosive, melodramatic one instead – but perhaps the alternate ending will be the one Warner will choose for Smith?
The other option, of course, would be to write a prequel instead of a follow-up, showing how the first film’s disease spread, and how Smith’s character survived. Whatever direction its writers choose, we hope whoever is responsible for its effects will learn from the mistakes of the first I Am Legend – those CG mutants really detracted from its hugely atmospheric opening act.
More news on I Am Legend 2 as we get it.
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