HOLLYWOOD was abuzz with news that Will Smith and Michael B. Jordan are teaming up for the I Am Legend sequel.
Smith, 53, and Jordan, 35, will not only star in the Warner Bros. film, but they are also set to co-produce, Deadline reports.
The report went on to say that Jordan will produce alongside Elizabeth Raposo under Outlier Society, while Smith, Jon Mone, and Ryan Shimazaki will serve as producers for Westbrook Studios.
Akiva Goldsman, who co-wrote the original film, is also on board to pen the sequel. A director has not been named yet.
Smith confirmed the news with an Instagram post of a deserted street, reminiscent of the original 2007 film, tagging Jordan in the photo.
The film, which starred Smith in the leading role, brought in more than $585 million (RM2.44 billion) worldwide.
Details are currently thin on the ground, but among the things the follow-up will have to do is resurrect Smith’s character, who sacrificed himself to save two of the only other humans left on a planet whose population was wiped out by a super-virus, a particular pertinent storyline for current times.
I Am Legend, based on Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel, has long been one of Smith’s proudest achievements as an actor thanks to its small moments. For most of the film, he had nothing to act opposite of, save for mannequins and a dog.
In 2015, Smith said in an interview: “I Am Legend easily could’ve been a stage play, right? You know, a one-man show, a dude with a dog – you generally would think you need a little bit more than that for a blockbuster, but to date, that’s my biggest opening and my second-biggest film.”
This big news comes a few months after Smith played Richard Williams in King Richard, and he was subsequently recognised in the Best Actor category in the 2022 Oscar nominations.
Jordan himself grabbed attention last year chiefly for starring in Without Remorse and A Journal for Jordan, as well as vocally reprising the character Killmonger for two episodes of Marvel’s animated What If... ? series and cameoing in Space Jam: A New Legacy.
