Why did I Am Legend's alternate ending never materialize? Here's what we know

I Am Legend is a film in the post-apocalyptic horror genre starring Will Smith. This Francis Lawrence-directed film is the third adaptation of Richard Matheson's eponymous novel that came out in 1954. It was written by Akiva Goldsmith and Mark Protosevich.

IMDb mentions its synopsis as follows,

Years after a plague kills most of humanity and transforms the rest into monsters, the sole survivor in New York City struggles valiantly to find a cure.

The film famously had an alternate ending that did not make it to the theatrical cut. So let us explore why that happened and what was in the original ending.

Exploring the alternate ending of I Am Legend

I Am Legend had an alternate ending that was completely different from what we saw in the theatrical cut. However, the test audience did not like it and preferred the version where the protagonist, Dr. Robert Neville (played by Will Smith), died while finding a cure for the virus. Due to audience response, the makers decided not to go with ahead with it.

The alternate ending was close to the source material and featured Neville in a bad light. It showcased Neville and others inside the lab with the patient while the Darkseeker alpha banged the glass to get inside. After the alpha fails to break in, he draws a butterfly figure on the glass. Neville then sees that the patient's tattoo is similar to that. It suddenly reminds him that the Darkseekers are intelligent creatures. He then lets the patient go, and there is no cure found for the virus.

This ending did not sit well with the test audience, which forced the makers to go with a relatively safer ending. In 2018, Francis Lawrence spoke to Screen Rant about how the alternate ending went against all the conventions. He said the ending noted that the hero was bad and the bad creatures were not that bad. Plus, there is no cure for the virus.

"And so you've basically turned everything on its head. We tested it twice and it got wildly rejected, wildly rejected, which is why we came out with the other one."

Back in February 2023, a sequel to I Am Legend was announced, and it will be starring Michael B. Jordan with Will Smith reprising his role. But what's interesting is that the film will take off from the alternate ending and not the theatrical one. So we will see what Neville did after he survived everything and fled New York.

Back in 2023, Will Smith spoke to Variety about the sequel and said:

“I have a call with Michael B. Jordan tomorrow. We’re really close, script just came in. You have to be a real ‘I Am Legend’ buff to know this, but in the first, theatrical version, my character dies, but on the DVD there was an alternate version of the ending where my character lived. We are going with the mythology of the DVD version. I can’t tell you anything more, but Michael B. Jordan is in.”

Fans can hope that the sequel retains the essence of the novel.