Highlights
- I Am Legend 2 is in development with Michael B. Jordan joining the cast, but the original director is not enthusiastic about returning to the world.
- The original I Am Legend film failed to capture the brilliance of the book and missed the point of the story, so a proper adaptation for modern audiences is needed.
- The Last of Us already exists as a post-apocalyptic series that explores similar themes, so it is unclear what an I Am Legend sequel has to offer in a saturated market.
I Am Legend 2 is in development at Warner Bros. Studio, with Michael B. Jordan joining the cast. There’s not much news on the production other than that. Even the original director, Francis Lawrence, doesn’t have anything to say about the matter. He’s done an interview on a podcast where he doesn’t sound enthusiastic about returning to that world. Both he and many fans believe it would be best for Will Smith’s version to rest in peace.
Will Smith was great in the I Am Legend adaptation, and it was an entertaining film. However, it failed to capture the brilliance of Richard Matheson’s book of the same name. Some of the changes might have been necessary, but others definitely weren’t. What I Am Legend needs is a proper adaptation for modern audiences, and Lawrence’s comments echo that sentiment.
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The Meaning Behind the Title
Not only did the original film fail the meaning of the book’s title and themes, but a sequel further distances it from the source material’s original intention. In Richard Matheson’s 1954 novella, Robert Neville is the last surviving human in a world overrun by vampires because of a global pandemic. Just like in the movie, Neville is immune to the virus that transformed the rest of the world. Critics and creators around the world widely consider Matheson’s novel the first modern vampire story. Its themes and setting went on to influence the future of the zombie genre, popularizing the worldwide zombie outbreak motif.
Throughout the novel, Neville recounts his time trying to survive in Los Angeles and the hundreds of vampires he has killed. While he only knew about and killed the feral vampires, specifically the ones that wandered his street and terrorized him at night, there was also a whole new species of vampires. The new species is more humane, forming its own society. They took Neville’s vampire hunting personally. They eventually capture Neville and schedule him to be publicly executed. While he stares out his prison window at his captors, he sees the same hatred and contempt he felt for the feral vampires. He realizes that once he’s dead, as the last human, he will go down as a legend or superstition, just as vampires were to humans.
Francis Lawrence’s I Am Legend film misses the point of Neville and the overall story. He sacrifices himself at the end of the theatrical release, but he doesn’t go down as a superstition to anyone, because there are still humans, and the infected humans don’t have the means to pass on his story. They communicate in grunts and roars.
Furthermore, the cinematic market is oversaturated with post-apocalyptic stories. In particular, one very popular franchise accomplishes what a sequel to I Am Legend should.
The Last of Us Already Exists
HBO’s The Last of Us is a standout television series that takes liberties where needed, but overall sticks to the source material. The world that Joel and Ellie wander shares many similarities with Robert Neville’s world, including humanity on the brink of extinction because of a pandemic. If fans want to see a post-apocalyptic world with an intriguing story, they only need to watch The Last of Us. The vampires in I Am Legend aren’t too different from the “zombies” in The Last of Us.
It makes one wonder what an I Am Legend sequel has to offer. Bringing in Michael B. Jordan doesn’t differentiate it from any other post-apocalyptic story. If they follow the alternate ending that general audiences didn’t see in the theater, then it’s going to follow Neville join the small compound of survivors along with Anna and Ethan. From there, there’s not much else to do other than finally bring in the new species of vampires and attempt to follow the book’s themes more closely.
Remake a Faithful Adaptation
I Am Legend has actually been made three different times, but none of the other adaptations bear the title of the source material. The one feature film that does use the same title deviates from the novella in the most extreme ways. There are two endings to Francis Lawrence’s version. The theatrical version sees Robert Neville (Will Smith) sacrifice himself so that Anna and Ethan can survive. Its alternate ending shows Neville coming to terms with the world he lives in and returning his specimen to its people, allowing him to escape New York City with Anna and Ethan. However, neither of those fall in line with the book’s ending. In an interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Lawrence stated that he prefers the ending in the book:
I prefer the original ending to the two that we have. But the truth is, now, I would’ve built it to be able to do the ending from the novella, truly just do that story. But with the money being spent, everybody was nervous about doing something so nihilistic.
Richard Matheson’s ending sees Neville captured and imprisoned by a new species of humans who have evolved with the vampiric disease. There is no Anna or Ethan in the novella. Instead, there’s a woman named Ruth, who turns out to be a member of this new species sent to spy on Neville. The new society schedules Neville’s execution, but Ruth feels remorse for him and gives him a suicide pill to take before his execution. With Robert Neville dead, there are no more human survivors on Earth.
That’s the movie that needs to be made. Developing a sequel to follow an ending that didn’t make the theatrical cut is both lazy and idealistic. It’s so far removed from the source material that it shouldn’t bear the same title. Not to mention, it will add confusion for general audiences, as they witnessed Neville sacrifice himself. A faithful adaptation would be a much better choice than a direct sequel because, despite all the other post-apocalyptic stories saturating the television, it gives a fresh and unique look at the end of the world that’s rooted in nihilism but also shines a light on hope. Few other writers have the guts to kill off the entire human race.
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