If you’ve seen Francis Lawrence’s “I Am Legend” (2007) then you already know that Will Smith’s Dr. Robert Neville dies at the end.
The "alternate" ending was actually removed from the theatrical cut due to negative response from test screening audiences. Lawrence knew he messed up and decided to reinsert the alternate ending on the two-disc special edition DVD, released in 2008.
Now, it’s been confirmed by screenwriter Akiva Goldsman that the sequel will use the “alternate ending” as canon, pretend the original never occurred. Smith’s Dr. Robert Neville will be back from the dead as he resumes his experiments on the Darkseekers.
“We’re sequelizing the alternative cut,” Goldsman just told a ComicCon panel. “Where Will lives and things don’t go well for humanity.” He added that there will be “some good news shortly” about the sequel.
Last year, Smith had hinted at the plan to pretend his character lived, telling Screen Daily that they were “going with the mythology of the DVD version.”
On March 2022, a sequel was officially announced by Warner Bros. Smith was said to reprise his role, and that left a lot of people puzzled as to how that could be since, as mentioned, he didn’t survive in the 2007 film. Well, we now have our answer — they’re just going to pretend like the original ending never happened.
Michael B. Jordan is set to star with Smith, they’re both co-producing. Goldsman (“A Beautiful Mind,” “Cinderella Man,” “Constantine”) has written the screenplay. It’s all coming together and why wouldn’t they make a sequel? The 2007 film grossed close to $600 million worldwide.
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