The sequel to Will Smith’s 2007 zombie hit I Am Legend is taking influence from HBO’s beloved new series from the same genre, The Last of Us.
Writer-producer Akiva Goldsman revealed he is working on the movie with returning star Smith who will be joined by Michael B Jordan.
“This will start a few decades later than the first,” Goldsman told Deadline in an interview.
“I’m obsessed with The Last of Us, where we see the world just post-apocalypse but also after a 20-to-30-year lapse. You see how the earth reclaims the world, and there’s something beautiful in the question of, as man steps away from being the primary tenant, what happens?
“That will be especially visual in New York. I don’t know if they’ll climb up to the Empire State Building, but the possibilities are endless.”
The Last of Us follows the outbreak of brain-infecting Cordyceps fungus, which alters the chemistry of the infected turning them into zombie-like creatures – though the “Z” word was banned on the HBO set.
After showing how the outbreak began, the rest of the series takes place 20 years later, showing a society that has been forced to adapt to the brutal pandemic.
Meanwhile, I Am Legend follows Smith as Robert Neville, a US Army virologist and the last surviving human New Yorker who spends his days trying to find a cure for the plague using his own immune blood.
The film had an alternate ending that was included in a special edition release of the movie’s DVD. It’s this ending, in which Neville survives, that Goldsman says he’s using as the basis for the sequel.
“What Matheson was talking about was that man’s time on the planet as the dominant species had come to an end,” the writer said.
“That’s a really interesting thing we’re going to get to explore. There will be a little more fidelity to the original text.”
The Last of Us airs new episodes Sundays on HBO Max in the US and Mondays on Sky Atlantic in the UK.
