Michael B. Jordan's I Am Legend 2 Character Revealed By Will Smith

Very soon, Michael B. Jordan will be working a double shift taking on vampires in Ryan Coogler's new horror action movie, "Sinners," which following first reactions, is already being labeled one of the best films of 2025. For Jordan, it'll make for a great warm-up, given that he'll be taking on beasties not too dissimilar from creatures of the night alongside Will Smith in that "I Am Legend" sequel, which we still can't believe is happening.

As it turns out, though, a follow-up film wasn't always on the cards. As Smith explained during an appearance on "Drink Champs," the film's original writer, Akiva Goldsman, had another story in mind initially. "What we were gonna do was the prequel, so we were going to go back and do the prequel," explained Smith. "And [Akiva Goldsman] was like, 'but wait, what if we make a new version from the alternate ending, where your character is still alive, and you know, Michael B. Jordan's character currently is the head of a new settlement.'"

While seeing these two talents share the screen together does make for a compelling pitch, it still feels like there are a lot of plot threads that need tying up. This includes not only addressing the gap in time between the first and second films but also the ending that some audiences may still not have seen after 18 years.

It was announced in 2022 that a sequel to "I Am Legend" was in the works, with Will Smith reprising his role as Robert Neville. That was despite him meeting a fiery death in the final act of the first film and the cure he created reaching the last remnants of humanity in Vermont. The new sequel, however, would disregard the first film's ending and instead follow the alternate one that could only be viewed through the DVD and Blu-Ray special features or this wonderful thing called YouTube.

It serves as a far more interesting starting point, similar to the impressive Richard Matheson book on which the film is based. Neville realizes that the monsters, though tribal and primitive, are merely the dominant species now, and he the monster to be feared. To quote the final lines of Matheson's book, "Full circle. A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am legend."

There are various routes both characters could take in the new film, with Jordan's character and Smith's having potentially opposing views on the Darkseekers and how they should be handled, especially as Neville learned the errors of his ways in the alternate ending 18 years ago. It's also worth noting that Smith teased Jordan as the leader of a settlement, but he didn't confirm if he was the head of a Darkseeker one, potentially threatening the Vermont base he was seen heading to. We're interested with whatever happens, just please (and we mean this) please don't kill another dog.