By staying true to the original book’s story elements, I Am Legend 2 could risk ruining the Darkseekers. Unlike Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend book, the original movie followed a tried-and-tested narrative, where Will Smith’s Dr. Neville helmed the responsibility to save the world from a deadly pandemic. Despite having several predictable elements, I Am Legend appealed to the masses because of its slam-bang action scenes, desolate depiction of an otherwise bustling New York City, and Will Smith’s brilliant performance.
After initially portraying an ending that kills Dr. Neville towards the end, I Am Legend came out with an alternate ending in which Neville survives. This ending not only made room for a potential sequel but also allowed the movie to be more loyal to its source material. While it is appreciable that I Am Legend 2 will adopt the retconned ending of the first film and mark Dr. Neville’s return, it creates some unavoidable Darkseeker problems.
I Am Legend’s Original Darkseekers Were Vampires
The I Am Legend movie does not exactly portray the central Darkseekers as zombies. For instance, there are scenes in the film where the creatures show signs of intelligence and even manage to outsmart Dr. Neville by placing well-thought-out traps throughout the city. I Am Legend also confirms that although they aggressively attack humans and animals, they primarily crave blood. However, despite differentiating them from stereotypical representations of zombies in movies, I Am Legend somehow got caught in the zombie era of the late aughts, making it hard not to assume that its central creatures were zombies. The Darkseekers in the original I Am Legend novel were significantly different.
Richard Matheson’s original I Am Legend book explicitly portrayed the Darkseekers as blood-sucking vampires. Instead of treading the movie’s path and obscuring their association with classic literature, the book established that, like typical vampires, the Darkseekers are not only allergic to the sun but can also be repelled using garlic and mirrors. In the books, the Darkseekers, like regular vampires, can be killed by driving a wooden stake through their hearts.
Book-Accurate Darkseekers Will Retcon The First Movie
The I Am Legend movie tries to create its original lore and even delves into the scientific details of how the Darkseekers came into existence. However, given how I Am Legend 2 will now retcon the first movie’s ending by not only portraying that Will Smith’s Dr. Neville is alive but also depicting the Darkseekers in a light that aligns more with the book’s lore, the movie might risk making the creatures seem weaker and more tame. Neville had to resort to military-grade weaponry and massive infrared panels to keep himself safe from the Darkseekers in the first I Am Legend movie.
If I Am Legend 2 rewrites them and makes them more vampiric, everyday objects like garlic, mirrors, and wooden stakes will be enough to kill them. This, in turn, will diminish the impact of the first movie’s action and even make Dr. Neville appear silly, given how he could have used garlic to keep Darkseekers away from his home instead of laying explosives and ultimately blowing up half of his house. Hopefully, I Am Legend 2 will provide logical explanations for these retcons and story transitions.
