I Am Legend 2 will follow the alternate ending of I Am Legend, which means the upcoming sequel has a significant villain problem. Each ending of the original movie identified a different villain, with the alternate ending following the idea of the book that Will Smith’s character, Robert Neville, was the true bad guy of the story since he had been capturing, experimenting on, and killing the Darkseekers. This realization established the themes of Neville’s story, but by retconning the ending and keeping Neville alive, I Am Legend 2 will have difficulty following this up cohesively.
The official ending of I Am Legend kept the Darkseekers as the villains, but the alternate ending revealed that they weren’t as mindless and violent as they appeared. This was the case in the book of the same name by Richard Matheson, but this second ending still had some significant differences from the source material. In the novel, Robert Neville died shortly after realizing that he had been murdering beings capable of love and community. However, since Smith’s version of Neville survived in the alternate ending, it puts him in an uncertain position for I Am Legend 2.
Robert Neville Can’t Be The Villain In I Am Legend 2
Finding out that the main character was really the villain was one of the major appeals of the I Am Legend book, and Robert Neville’s death was supposed to be his retribution. However, since I Am Legend‘s alternate ending kept the character alive, and he is confirmed to return in I Am Legend 2, it’s unclear if he will continue to be a ‘villain.’ After returning the female Darkseeker to the alpha at the end of the first film, Neville remorsefully looked at the pictures of all the Darkseekers he had experimented on – realizing that he had murdered them. If he learned his lesson, he can’t continue hunting them in I Am Legend 2.
Of course, this understanding in I Am Legend means that the Darkseekers can no longer be the villains as they were in the original ending. What made them so terrible and frightening was that they were mindless zombies, but when Neville learned the truth, they became sympathetic instead. So, going into I Am Legend 2, Neville can’t be the villain because he learned his lesson, and the Darkseekers can’t be the villains without retconning the truth learned about them. The only thing left would be another human who doesn’t understand the truth about the Darkseekers – but this trope is massively overdone.
I Am Legend Has No Choice But To Retcon Its Original Themes
I Am Legend 2 retconning its predecessor’s original ending means that the version closest to the I Am Legend book has been established as film canon. However, the entire reason that Robert Neville was considered a ‘legend’ in the novel is that he was the last human on earth when he died and was therefore passing on the mantle to the Darkseekers (though they weren’t called this until the movie). This was the entire foundation of the story’s themes, and no matter who serves as a villain in I Am Legend 2, this has been thrown out the window.
Since Neville is alive in I Am Legend 2, and it appears that there will be several other “human” characters, the new movie has set itself up to be unable to follow through with the original themes of I Am Legend. This means the sequel will have to forge its own path, which will likely all come down to who will be presented as the new central antagonist. Perhaps this new villain will bring a new definition to the titular ‘legend,’ or maybe Neville will die at the end of I Am Legend 2 and become a legend in a unique way. Only time will tell – but it clearly won’t be like the book.
