There was a time when having the name “Will Smith” attached to your film meant a certified Hollywood hit. But since the infamous Oscars slap, those days are over. These days, the actor has remained relatively quiet, choosing projects carefully as he navigates the continued negative press surrounding him and his family. Still, Warner Bros. believes they can recreate the magic of I Am Legend, one of Will’s biggest films, with a sequel. And now they’ve brought on Creed II director Steven Caple Jr. to help.
Two decades after the success of the first film, Warner Bros. has decided to retcon the ending of I Am Legend, relying on the alternative ending from the DVD release to continue the story. Robert Neville survived the attack of the mutants (or rather, the infected, which are mutants resembling vampires) and left New York with Anna and Ethan… and a cure.
“We’re sequelizing the alternative cut,” writer Akiva Goldsman said at Comic-Con. “Where Will lives and things don’t go well for humanity.”
The story will pick up after those events and include Michael B. Jordan as a lead character. And it looks like Jordan, who is also producing, recruited his friend, Steven Caple Jr., best known for Creed II and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, to lead them (via Collider).
Although the original I Am Legend received some backlash from fans for not sticking closely to the books, it did make $585 million worldwide back in 2007. It’s the kind of money that makes studios want to return to a property again and again. Except this time, it won’t just be Smith in an apocalypse story with one man and his dog. It could be a much bigger and more ambitious project that could go in an unexpected direction.
Filming hasn’t started, of course. That means there’s no release date yet either. But now the film’s been handed over to Steven Caple Jr. to steer. And depending on how you felt about his projects, that’s either a good or bad thing.
Let’s hope it does well, so Will Smith can do I, Robot 2 next.
