Long-Awaited I Am Legend 2 Will Be Inspired By The Last Of Us
Long before HBO's The Last of Us was breaking records and mythical video game curses, the zombie genre has always been shuffling to the top of must-watch lists. Now, the long-awaited I Am Legend 2 is ready to take a bite out of that undead pie.
We've come a long way from George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead, and whether it's 28 Days Later popularising "fast" zombies, Zombieland adding humour to the genre, or The Girl with All the Gifts putting Glenn Close in a zombie movie, we're still hungry for brains in 2023.
I Am Legend 2 Is Still Coming
Click to enlargeBack in 2007, the Will Smith-led I Am Legend was another breath of fresh air to the stagnating zombie genre. Starring Smith as virologist Robert Neville, he was left in an apocalyptic New York following an outbreak of a mutating virus.
I Am Legend made a small fortune and has the largest-ever box office for a non-Christmas film released in December in the USA. Director Francis Lawrence originally planned a prequel as early as 2008, but as things changed and Smith became a maybe, it took until March 2022 for the sequel to be announced.
Speaking to Deadline, I Am Legend co-writer Akiva Goldsman told us what we can expect from the follow-up. "This will start a few decades later than the first," said Goldsman. "I'm obsessed with The Last of Us, where we see the world just post-apocalypse but also after a 20-30-year lapse."
Explaining why Naughty Dog's fungal favourite inspired him, Goldman added, "You see how the earth reclaims the world, and there’s something beautiful in the question of, as man steps away from being the primary tenant, what happens? That will be especially visual in New York."
What's The Storyline Of I Am Legend 2?
Picking up with the alternate ending of Lawrence's first movie, this means Neville doesn't die in his basement during a fiery sacrifice to save the others. The DVD ends has Neville and two more uninfected heading to a survivor colony in Vermont.
I Am Legend 2 will also star Michael B. Jordan, but Goldsman stops short of confirming who the Black Panther favourite will be playing. Teasing more of what's to come, Goldsman added, "I don’t know if they’ll climb up to the Empire State Building, but the possibilities are endless."
Promising it'll stick closer to Richard Matheson's 1954 novel of the same name, Goldman concluded, "What Matheson was talking about was that man's time on the planet as the dominant species had come to an end.
"That's a really interesting thing we’re going to get to explore. There will be a little more fidelity to the original text." Seeing the success of The Last of Us and what HBO has done in adapting Naughty Dog's game, we're excited to see where I Am Legend 2 takes the story.
