{"id":195323,"date":"2025-12-20T19:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T19:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/195323\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T19:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T19:35:08","slug":"18-years-later-will-smiths-150-million-sci-fi-masterpiece-still-awaiting-a-sequel-is-a-sleeper-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/195323\/","title":{"rendered":"18 Years Later, Will Smith\u2019s $150 Million Sci-Fi Masterpiece Still Awaiting a Sequel Is a Sleeper Hit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" alt=\"Will Smith on the red carpet\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/will-smith.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/will-smith.jpg\"\/><br \/>\n        Will Smith on the red carpetImage via\u00a0Scoop\/ACE\/INSTARimages.com<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/will-smith\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Will Smith<\/a> may be responsible for one of the most infamous moments in Oscars history with his <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/will-smith-chris-rock-oscars-fight-slap\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Chris Rock slap<\/a>, but that doesn\u2019t change the fact that he\u2019s one of the greatest actors of all time. He\u2019s risen to this status on the backs of great projects like <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/i-am-legend\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">I Am Legend<\/a>, the 2007 post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller following a man working to find a cure for a virus that wiped out the majority of humanity. Although it\u2019s been almost 20 years since it hit theaters, I Am Legend has returned to global VOD charts around the world, landing in the top 10 in several countries.<\/p>\n<p>This newfound streaming success for I Am Legend comes despite the already-announced sequel still making no progress. It\u2019s been confirmed that Smith will reprise his role as Robert Neville in I Am Legend 2, which will also star <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/i-am-legend\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Michael B. Jordan<\/a>. Little is known about the sequel, other than it will be a continuation of the alternate I Am Legend ending, where Neville survives the events of the film. Smith has also <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/i-am-legend-2-michael-b-jordan-not-will-smith-son-explained\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">debunked the rumors that Jordan will be playing his son<\/a> in the film, saying that it\u2019s an entirely different character.<\/p>\n<p>I Am Legend is based on the novel of the same name by Richard Matheson, and Mark Protosevich teamed up with Akiva Goldsman to write the script for the film. <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/francis-lawrence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Francis Lawrence<\/a>, famed for his work directing <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/hunger-games-movies-ranked-worst-to-best\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Hunger Games movies<\/a> starring Jennifer Lawrence, was at the helm for I Am Legend. Earlier this year, Lawrence directed one of the best <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/stephen-king\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Stephen King<\/a> adaptations of all time in <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/the-long-walk-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Long Walk<\/a>, which is currently on VOD and expected on streaming soon.<\/p>\n<p>                        When Does \u2018I Am Legend 2\u2019 Come Out?<\/p>\n<p>There is no word about a potential release date for I Am Legend 2, and this information likely won\u2019t be announced until the film reaches a more advanced stage of development. It\u2019s clearly in the works \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/i-am-legend-2-update-michael-b-jordan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">both Smith and Jordan have confirmed their involvement<\/a> \u2014 but it doesn\u2019t even have a production start date at the time of writing, or any additional cast beyond the two confirmed. If the film can make it out of its current development rut, it can easily be considered one of the most anticipated sci-fi projects of all time.<\/p>\n<p>Check out I Am Legend on VOD platforms like <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/prime-video\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Prime Video<\/a>, and stay tuned to Collider for more streaming updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will Smith on the red carpetImage via\u00a0Scoop\/ACE\/INSTARimages.com Will Smith may be responsible for one of the most infamous&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,46,397],"class_list":["post-195323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}