I Am Legend 2 Wishlist: 8 Things We Want From The Sequel

Summary

• Will Smith confirmed that the sequel will retcon the original’s theatrical ending for a stronger narrative.
• Flashbacks in “I Am Legend 2” could explore Dr. Neville’s past and provide more insight into the world before the outbreak.
• A new group of survivors led by Michael B. Jordan may offer a fresh plot direction, including a potentially enlightened society of Darkseekers.

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After 12 long years in development, it seems as though Will Smith’s return to I Am Legend‘s post-apocalyptic New York is finally underway, promising some exciting developments. Released in 2007, I Am Legend loosely adapted the short science fiction novella of the same name, starring Smith as Dr. Robert Neville, the seemingly sole survivor of a vampire-like plague caused by a failed cure for cancer. While I Am Legend‘s ending seemed pretty conclusive, recently-released details for I Am Legend 2 promise more.

I Am Legend’s novel had no sequel, meaning the producers of Will Smith’s follow-up nearly twenty years in the making will be on their own to find a new direction for the story of Dr. Robert Neville and the Darkseekers to go in after the conclusion of the original. However, there’s plenty of untapped material from the significantly different original I Am Legend story that the first movie left on the cutting room floor, which could be re-purposed for the follow-up. Additionally, the film is not without a few dangling plot threads that could never get an official resolution.

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8 Confirmation Of The First Film’s Better Ending

Will Smith has already dismantled the theatrical ending

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I Am Legend‘s two different endings are one of the most famous aspects of the 2007 film. In the theatrical release, the movie closes on Dr. Robert Neville sacrificing himself so that newfound fellow survivors Anna and Ethan can escape to safety with the cure. This is in stark contrast to the original planned ending, used in the DVD release, in which Neville returns the female Darkseeker test subject to the alpha of her pack, recognizing the creatures’ latent humanity and realizing that he had become a sort of boogeyman to them, echoing the films name, I Am Legend.

Obviously, the ending in which Neville survives is necessary to use in a sequel that allows Will Smith to reprise his role. Beyond this simple fact, however, it’s also the stronger of the two, being truer to the source material while better exploring the actual themes the film built towards over the course of its runtime. Luckily, Will Smith himself has already confirmed that I Am Legend 2 will retcon the theatrical ending, essentially admitting that the finale in which his character dies was by far the least satisfying and narratively effective.

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7 Flashbacks Showing The Earliest Days Of The Plague

I Am Legend 2 could flesh out Robert Neville’s history

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I Am Legend gives only the briefest glimpses of life before the Darkseeker plague began to spread, describing the earliest days of the chaos and the tragic death of Robert’s wife and daughter in a helicopter crash. While this certainly set up all the information audiences needed going into the film, it glosses over what Dr. Robert Neville’s life was like as a military virologist before the outbreak began in earnest. This is in stark contrast to the book, which utilizes more frequent flashbacks, clarifying that it was the disease that took the lives of his family.

I Am Legend 2 could give greater insight into the world at large, as well as Neville’s personal life before the outbreak, with more flashbacks, although working around Will Smith’s age may make such a prospect tricky. Still, his appearance in Gemini Man was one of the most convincing and thorough uses of de-aging technology, meaning that if anyone could circumvent their apparent age for the sake of a flashback, it’s Will Smith. A larger window into the pre-apocalypse lives of Neville and the other survivors would be a great way to help contextualize the world of I Am Legend.

6 A New Group Of Survivors

The Vermont safe haven might finally be seen

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Regardless of whether the theatrical or DVD ending is in play, the third act of I Am Legend has Anna and Ethan mention a safe camp of survivors somewhere in Bethel, Vermont, despite Neville’s claims to the contrary that such a place exists. That being said, the fact that until meeting them, Neville believed himself to be the last living human in all of New York City, and possibly the world, implies that Anna and Ethan have a better grasp on the overall state of I Am Legend‘s world. The sequel could finally give some long-awaited insight into these survivors.

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So far, the only confirmed new cast member in I Am Legend 2 is Michael B. Jordan, who is set to feature in an as-of-yet undisclosed role. It’s possible that Michael B. Jordan could play the role of some kind of leader to the survivor’s camp, possibly clashing with Dr. Robert Neville’s harrowing experiences surviving all on his own. These survivors could even be the living Darkseekers described in the book, essentially a non-feral sect of the creatures that have retained most of their humanity and have gone on to establish a new society all their own.

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5 More Exploration Of The Darkseekers’ Humanity

The major themes of the original story could be touched on more

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Part of what makes I Am Legend‘s premise so intriguing compared to the likes of other apocalypse movies is the clear latent humanity lying dormant in the Darkseekers. At first, the creatures seem to be more or less feral, bloodthirsty cannibalistic ghouls with no higher degree of thought whatsoever. But the alternate ending of the film clearly demonstrates that the beings are at least capable of forming complex emotional bonds and caring for one another, as seen when the Darkseeker alpha inscribes a butterfly pattern in his longing for the return of his mate, who has a butterfly tattoo.

In the original story, these expressions of higher thinking are explored far further, with an evolved form of the Darkseekers forming a society almost indistinguishable from that of humans, forming their own myths about the terrifying Dr. Neville, who hunts them for his experiments. This conceit is what gave I Am Legend its name, despite being woefully underdeveloped in the original cut of the first movie. Hopefully, I Am Legend 2 can expand on the sapience of the Darkseekers, giving them more demonstrative self-awareness or even culture.

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4 Robert Neville Held Trial By The Darkseekers

One of the most fascinating scenes of the original book deserves a chance to be adapted

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The Darkseekers of I Am Legend were quite different from the book’s monsters, much more like classical vampires conditioned to have all the hallmark weaknesses of the legendary creatures. But the original novel gave them far more humanity, forming their own complex society of living infected nearly indistinguishable from humans and capable of surviving sunlight.I Am Legend would do well to introduce this element into the continued story, if not just to re-create one of the most compelling book scenes left out of the original movie.

In author Richard Matheson’s original horror novel, the Darkseekers end up capturing and imprisoning Dr. Robert Neville for his crimes against their race, kidnapping a number of them for use in his experiments in hopes of reverse-engineering the contagion. Recognizing his villainy in their eyes, Neville accepts his fate, witnessing the ugly stares of the creatures he once looked at the same way. Holding Will Smith’s character trial for his crimes against the Darkseekers would be an incredibly fascinating and poignant way to drive home the creatures’ intelligence and right to exist.

3 Robert Neville Becomes The Protector Of The Darkseekers

Would flip the status quo of the original film on its head

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Neville’s arc in recognizing the humanity of his old enemies is a clear path for Will Smith’s character to follow in the upcoming sequel. What could make the story even more engaging would be the reversal of his role in I Am Legend, becoming a protector of the Darkseekers rather than the bane of their existence. Upon learning the full extent of the undead race’s cultural development and human emotions, Neville could imprint upon a society of them, becoming his found family just as he had done with Sam, Anna and Ethan.

Neville could even be forced to protect the Darkseekers against a murderous group of survivors, possibly led by Michael B. Jordan’s character. This inversion of Will Smith’s role might be the most compelling direction the story could have any hope of going in, with Neville becoming legendary to the creatures not for his cruelty, but now for his aid as a protector of the burgeoning race. At once bringing Neville’s character arc full circle and setting up a bitter, reluctant conflict, Neville becoming the Darkseekers’ guardian makes a shocking amount of sense.

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2 Progress Is Made Towards A Cure

The fate of Neville’s work deserves to have a definitive conclusion

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One of the most fateful plot points of the film is left woefully unresolved by I Am Legend‘s alternative ending, which Will Smith has confirmed the sequel will use as canon. Rather than finish his cure and sacrifice himself so that his work might live on with Ethan and Anna, in the DVD ending, Neville utterly abandons his research, leaving behind his obsessions with cleansing the world and taking revenge for his old family and instead accepting his new one. While a nice message, it seems like a waste not to include the search for a cure in a sequel.

There are a plethora of directions I Am Legend 2 could go in when it comes to following up on the cure for the outbreak responsible for the Darkseekers. Neville could abandon his research, but be forced to work on it again by a new human faction led by Michael B. Jordan, or he could finish his work but struggle to distribute it within the collapsed society of I Am Legend‘s world. If Neville ends up working with a newly-minted society of enlightened Darkseekers, he might even switch to actively fighting against the cure, which would effectively “kill” sentient creatures.

1 Ruth From The Original Novel Makes An Appearance

One of the most important characters from the story never appeared in the first film

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Of all the ways I Am Legend differs from its source material, the characters outside of Will Smith’s Dr. Robert Neville may be the most significant. Just like the movie, Neville does have something of a love interest in the novel after the passing of his wife. But rather than the survivor Anna, it’s the vampire Ruth who shares a few tender romantic moments with him, despite the fact that he had unknowingly slain her husband during his crusades against the vampires.

Ruth could be a great way to introduce an enlightened strain of Darkseekers into the sequel, giving Neville even more of a reason to care about their welfare should the film opt to poise him as their guardian. Neville and Ruth have a uniquely engaging romantic dynamic in the books, clearly desiring one another but bound by their positions across the lines of species. Even if she’s just boiled down to a simple villain, Ruth deserved an appearance in I Am Legend, and should be included in the sequel.

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I Am Legend
PG-13
Drama
Horror
Sci-Fi
Thriller

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Director Francis Lawrence Release Date December 14, 2007 Studio(s) Warner Bros. Pictures Distributor(s) Warner Bros. Pictures Writers Akiva Goldsman , Mark Protosevich Cast willow smith , Salli Richardson-Whitfield , Will Smith , Alice Braga , Charlie Tahan Runtime 101 minutes Budget $150 million

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Category: Entertainment