While Will Smith has a few major franchises to his name, the blockbuster star’s upcoming I Am Legend sequel marks a major first for him in the last 23 years. Will Smith was no stranger to a blockbuster franchise or three near the start of his screen career. After emerging as an emerging talent via his hip hop career and the classic ‘90s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Smith established himself as a credible dramatic actor with a role in 1993’s acclaimed Six Degrees of Separation. Soon, Hollywood A-list superstardom came calling.
Throughout the ‘90s, Smith starred in a string of massive franchises. Bad Boys and Men in Black both became huge series for the star, and they were followed by a string of one-off hits like Ali, I, Robot, Hitch, and I Am Legend. The last of these will soon receive a belated sequel in the upcoming I Am Legend 2, but the arrival of this follow-up marks a surprising first for Smith since 2003. As shocking as it might sound, 2003’s Bad Boys II was the last time Smith starred in a franchise-launching first sequel.
To be clear, between 2024’s Bad Boys: Ride or Die and 2012’s Men in Black 3, Smith has starred in sequels since 2003. However, I Am Legend 2 is specifically his first “second movie” in a series since he returned for director Michael Bay’s bombastic Bad Boys sequel some 23 years ago. Before that, 2002’s underwhelming Men in Black II had expanded his sci-fi comedy franchise. Since Bad Boys II, Smith has sporadically appeared in sequels to existing movie franchises, but hasn’t reprised another role outside of them.
Broadly speaking, Smith typically avoids sequels where possible. He didn’t come back for 2016’s Independence Day: Resurgence, he was recast for 2021’s Suicide Squad reboot The Suicide Squad, and even 2019’s much-maligned franchise reboot Men in Black: International didn’t feature an appearance from him as Agent J. Thus, I Am Legend 2 is notable for tempting Smith to return, even though most of his recent blockbuster roles have been original projects outside of two further Bad Boys sequels.
What’s particularly interesting about this comeback is that Smith’s I Am Legend 2 return is no ordinary cash-in. The theatrical ending of director Francis Lawrence’s original post-apocalyptic horror thriller I Am Legend saw Smith’s protagonist, Dr. Robert Neville, take his own life to blow up a hive of the movie’s monstrous Darkseekers, but I Am Legend 2 is set to retcon this ending and replace it with the movie’s original alternative ending.
This superior ending, which sticks closer to the source novel, sees a humbled Neville learn that the monsters he has been killing for years are thinking, feeling, sentient beings, and they view him as an unthinking monster for hunting their kind. While I Am Legend 2’s alternate ending was always a more thoughtful and original ending, it will still be strange to see Will Smith’s return to the I Am Legend franchise retcon the coda that most viewers are familiar with before getting into the plot of the sequel.
