Michael B. Jordan Offers “I Am Legend 2” Update
I Am Legend 2, the sequel to Will Smith’s 2007 hit, is very much in the works, but don’t just take our word for it.
Michael B. Jordan recently told People that Akiva Goldsman, who wrote the original film, and Mark Protosevich are writing the script for the sequel. Jordan will join Smith in the follow-up.
“We’re still working on the script and getting that up to par,” Jordan told People. “It doesn’t have a release date or anything like that. I’m not sure exactly where we’re going to be filming that one, but I’m really excited to get in front of the camera with him. Being somebody that I’ve looked up to for a really long time, to be able to work with Will is something I’m really looking forward to. I’m really excited.”
I Am Legend was directed by Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games franchise) and featured Smith as virologist Robert Neville, the last man standing in a New York City that’s been devastated by a man-made plague that turned humans into ravenous, murderous mutants. Smith’s Neville wasn’t merely trying eke out an existence and stay out of sight, he was a man on a mission, working on a cure while trying to reconnect with any other survivors. While he might have been the loneliest man in New York, he at least had one trusted compatriot, his dog, Samantha, a German Shepherd that was his sole companion and protector—that is, if you don’t count the mannequins that Neville talked to (it’s hard to stay completely sane in that situation).
Last month, Smith told Entertainment Tonight that the sequel is was looking good. “[We have some] really solid ideas… I think [Michael and I are] going to make it on screen together. That dude is the truth, so I would love to do that,” he said.
Smith gave another update at the Red Sea International Film Festival earlier in the year, revealing that the sequel would work off the alternate ending to the 2007 film in which Robert Neville survives. In the original film released into theaters, that wasn’t the case.
“I have a call with Michael B. Jordan tomorrow. We’re really close, script just came in,” Smith said at the festival of the sequel. “You have to be a real I Am Legend buff to know this, but in the first theatrical version, my character dies, but on the DVD, there was an alternate version of the ending where my character lived. We are going with the mythology of the DVD version. I can’t tell you anything more, but Michael B. Jordan is in.”
On tap next for Jordan is the film he’s working on with his longtime collaborator Ryan Cooger. Although not much is known about the project, what we do know is very exciting—an original story, one that could kick off a franchise, and that was the subject of an intense bidding war. We’re in.
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Featured image: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 06:Michael B. Jordan attends the LA Community Screening Of Warner Bros Pictures’ “Just Mercy” at Cinemark Baldwin Hills on January 06, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
