I Am Legend 2 is in the works.

A sequel to Will Smith’s post-apocalyptic horror film I Am Legend is being released more than ten years after its initial release in 2007.

I Am Legend writer Avika Goldsman announced that I Am Legend 2 is in the works after inking a multi-year deal with Warner Bros.

The first movie, which was an adaptation of the same-titled 1954 novel by Richard Matheson, made $585 million worldwide. 

Smith plays Robert Neville, a virologist who searches for a cure after surviving a disease that was brought about by humans, in the film’s lead role.

Michael B. Jordan and Smith will both reprise their roles as Robert Neville, however, specifics about Smith’s character are being withheld. Smith and Jordan will both work as producers on I Am Legend 2.

According to Goldsman, the sequel will incorporate both the ending from Matheson’s book and the alternate conclusion from the first movie, in which Smith’s character lives.

“We trace back to the original Matheson book and the alternate ending as opposed to the released ending in the original film,” he said.

“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.”

After the success of the first movie, there was talk of a potential I Am Legend prequel. Francis Lawrence, the director, refuted these assertions in 2011 by saying, “No, I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.”

Inspiring Goldsman to start writing I Am Legend 2 was the well-liked post-apocalyptic video game The Last of Us, which was adapted by HBO with Pedro Pascal as the lead actor in 2023.

“I’m obsessed with The Last of Us, where we see the world just post-apocalypse but also after a 20-30-year lapse,” said Goldsman.

“You see how the earth reclaims the world, and there’s something beautiful in the question of, as a man steps away from being the primary tenant, what happens? That will be especially visual in New York. I don’t know if they’ll climb up to the Empire State Building, but the possibilities are endless.”