Will I Am Legend Get a Prequel or a Sequel? And Do You Care?

Posted by Rob Hunter (rob@filmschoolrejects.com) on November 24, 2008

The fact that I Am Legend made almost $600 million worldwide guarantees a follow-up will be made… but the question remains: what form will it take? The initial word was that a sequel was in development… which, as folks who’d seen the first film were aware, would be a bit difficult to do with Will Smith. Then word broke that it would actually be a prequel… which made sense logically speaking, but who the hell would be interested in watching a build-up when we already know Robert Neville ends up alone in NYC? And now the plans appear to have flip-flopped yet again…

SPOILERS AHEAD

AICN has received word from an anonymous and untested source that Warner Bros. has decided to scrap the prequel idea and go for a full fledged sequel with Smith returning as Robert Neville instead. Neville dies a loud and fiery death in the original’s ending, so how he can return is anyone’s guess. I see two options here.

One, he could have somehow survived the blast, but he’d be pretty burned up, and I don’t see WB allowing their star actor to emote from behind prosthetic burn make-up for an entire film. Or two, the sequel could follow the alternate (and better) ending found on the DVD. Neville lives and realizes that he may have finally created a “cure” for the virus. Could be room for some nice moral conflict there as the question arises if the afflicted are actually in need of curing in the first place. That has it’s own set of problems though, as most people are only familiar with the original ending.

So what’s it going to be? Obviously the ideal solution is for no follow-up at all, but the odds of that are non-existent. The prequel idea is boring as dirt, so hopefully this rumor is true.

Do you have a preference? Sequel or prequel? Has enough time passed yet for you to comfortably admit that I Am Legend was actually a pretty good movie?

Read more articles by Rob Hunter