I Am Legend 2 can bring back Will Smith’s Robert Neville without undoing his death from the original. I Am Legend is the third cinematic adaptation of Richard Matheson’s classic vampire novel of the same name, following The Last Man On Earth from 1964 and Charlton Heston’s The Omega Man. Just like the book, all three movies end with the demise of the title character, but unfortunately, none of them captured the key theme of the novel either. In Matheson’s story, Neville discovers the vampires are essentially the next evolutionary leap and with time, he’ll come to be seen as a mystical monster as they once were.
Famously, the Will Smith fronted I Am Legend originally featured a happier ending for Neville. In this I Am Legend alternate ending, it’s revealed the “Darkseeker” mutants are sentient and just want to retrieve one of their own, who Neville captured and has been performing painful experiments on. Instead of taking revenge, they let Neville live and he later leaves New York with Anna (Alice Braga) and a young survivor named Ethan. Negative test screening results for this finale saw a new ending added where Neville sacrifices himself instead, with Anna and Ethan taking the cure he discovered to a colony of human survivors.
I Am Legend was a huge success, but since Neville died, this made attempts to develop a follow-up trickly. Warner Bros developed a prequel and sequel – where Neville was cloned – before the notion was abandoned. It was actually Creed star Michael B. Jordan who got I Am Legend 2 – which can fix the title meaning – back on track, with the actor pitching Smith on a new concept that got him excited about returning. Since the sequel was confirmed, it was assumed I Am Legend 2 was going to follow the alternate ending where Neville survived to bring him back. However, there’s a way to bring back Neville that doesn’t undo the movie’s theatrical ending. Throughout I Am Legend, Neville – who is searching for a cure to the Krippin Virus that destroyed most of the world – recorded daily video logs of his activities and research, and this could be how the character returns.
Jordan’s character may have to return to New York to recover Neville’s notes and research on the Krippin Virus, and I Am Legend 2 could limit Smith’s appearances to these video logs. These logs could also be used for flashbacks, allowing the return of a slightly de-aged Smith and even Neville’s beloved dog Sam before their deaths. Although Neville seemingly found a cure in I Am Legend’s finale, there’s nothing to say the survivors were able to mass-produce and distribute it either. Since Neville worked for years to find it, that would make the recovery of the research from his old lab invaluable.
This would also establish that Michael B. Jordan is the real lead of I Am Legend 2, with Smith taking a reduced but key supporting role. However, the big issue with this sequel idea is that audiences would likely want to see both actors share the screen, which would be difficult to achieve if one character is supposed to be deceased. Since I Am Legend’s – which Arnold Schwarzenegger turned down – alternate ending appears to be the consensus favorite among viewers too, that’s probably the easiest way to bring back Smith’s Neville, but if the sequel wants to stick with the theatrical cut, the video logs are one way it could happen.
