Movies
‘I Am Legend’ Prequel Officially Dead
Back in 2008, Warner Bros. began work on an I Am Legend Prequel, bringing back the team of star Will Smith and director Francis Lawrence which brought in a worldwide gross of $584 million the first time around. The film would chronicle the final days of humanity in New York before a man-made virus caused a plague that left Smith’s character the lone survivor among a mutated mob in the city.
Word on the film had been non-existent until today, when an interview with Lawrence revealed that he is no longer involved and that he doesn’t “think [it’s] ever going to happen.”
The news isn’t particularly surprising, as the idea of a prequel featuring the outbreak of the virus didn’t really catch many people’s interest. Considering what direction the film’s theatrical ending would’ve taken the franchise, I can understand from a financial standpoint why they would go for a prequel. This late in the game, it would be confusing to general audiences to go bill the (much better) alternate ending as a jumping off point for a sequel, plus there would be no way to intelligently incorporate Smith as the lead.
The prequel could, of course, be revisited later on by a different director / creative team but for now, consider it dead.
Filming is underway on The Invisible Man director Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man for Universal and Blumhouse, which will be howling its way into theaters on January 17, 2025.
Deadline reports that Matilda Firth (Disenchanted) is the latest actor to sign on, joining Christopher Abbott (Poor Things), Julia Garner (The Royal Hotel), and Sam Jaeger.
The project will mark Whannell’s second monster movie and fourth directing collaboration with Blumhouse Productions (The Invisible Man, Upgrade, Insidious: Chapter 3).
Wolf Man stars Christopher Abbott as a man whose family is being terrorized by a lethal predator.
Writers include Whannell & Corbett Tuck as well as Lauren Schuker Blum & Rebecca Angelo.
Jason Blum is producing the film. Ryan Gosling, Ken Kao, Bea Sequeira, Mel Turner and Whannell are executive producers. Wolf Man is a Blumhouse and Motel Movies production.
In the wake of the failed Dark Universe, Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man has been the only real success story for the Universal Monsters brand, which has been struggling with recent box office flops including the comedic Renfield and period horror movie The Last Voyage of the Demeter. Giving him the keys to the castle once more seems like a wise idea, to say the least.
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