One of the more surprising announcements to emerge this year was the news that Will Smith and Michael B. Jordan would be teaming up for the first time ever, in a sequel to post-apocalyptic smash hit I Am Legend.
While reports had been making the rounds that Warner Bros. were actively trying to revive the property, the fact that Smith’s Robert Neville was killed off at the end of the theatrical version always made it feel unlikely that he’d return for a second bite at the plague-ridden cherry.
Of course, he survives in the finale of the Director’s Cut, but it would be a bold and fairly unprecedented move to ignore the ending of a film that earned $585 million at the box office in favor of a home video extra.
Despite his reputation as one of the biggest draws of the modern era, Smith doesn’t make anywhere near as many sequels as you might think, so the whole I Am Legend 2 scenario has raised plenty of questions.
As it turns out, Jordan was integral to the former Fresh Prince signing on, after he revealed in an interview with Entertainment Tonight that he wasn’t all that interested in the project until he heard the pitch.
“The idea came up. I can’t talk about it yet. But it’s a really, really cool concept and [Michael B. Jordan] was a part of creating the idea. It was one of those ones I was gonna leave alone, and then I heard the idea. But that might work. I think we can do that.’”
There’s no director attached as of yet, so the next chapter in the I Am Legend story is still in the very earliest stages, but it goes without saying that the most important piece of information we need cleared up is how and why Smith fits into the story.