There has been a lot of speculation on the internet over the past several weeks pertaining to whether or not the next I Am Legend film would be a prequel or a sequel. At Comic-Con this past summer, director Francis Lawrence confirmed that they were working on a prequel, but then rumors started coming out about how it would actually be a sequel. The way I Am Legend, a sequel seemed highly unlikely, but now we finally can lay all the rumors to rest. During a press junket for Will Smith’s upcoming film Seven Pounds, Collider talked with Smith, who revealed that the film will be a prequel, and focus on the fall of the last cities: Manhattan and D.C.:
“We’re still trying to work through a couple of bumps in the story,” said Smith. “It’s essentially the fall of the last city – the last stand of Manhattan. The movie would be… within the body of the movie D.C. and then Manhattan would fall as the last city. It’s a really cool idea trying to figure it out… there’s a reason why we have to take a small band and we have to get into D.C. So we have to make our way from New York to D.C. and then back to New York.”
I’d love to see this movie. I am Legend pleads for a prequel. The movie did a shoddy job of explaining the events that led up to the virus.
I only hope that the prequel doesn’t turn into a 2 hour extension purely of the flashbacks we saw Smith have about leaving his family. I hope it delves more into the virus itself.