Will Smith Finally Reveals Why I Am Legend’s Original Ending Was Changed

While several cinephiles know about the darker alternate ending of I Am Legend, actor Will Smith has disclosed that the creators had initially envisioned it as the original conclusion for the movie. In a recent interview, the Academy Award winner explained why they had to switch the original ending of 2007’s I Am Legend at the last hour due to an abysmal response from test audiences.

I Am Legend’s test audience thought original ending was ‘bulls—‘

During his recent appearance on a podcast, the Hancock star revealed that the first watchers of I Am Legend absolutely loathed the original ending, which, in truth, was how Richard Matheson had concluded his novel of the same name.

“It was the only movie I’ve ever had that the audience booed,” Will Smith remarked on Rap-Up. He then detailed that the test screening of the post-apocalyptic action horror flick had a “couple hundred people” in attendance who received a feedback form with five boxes that read “excellent, very good, good, poor, very poor.”

To Smith’s surprise, the show ended with the top two boxes only fetching 51% of the votes. “It was the lowest-scoring movie I’ve ever had,” he noted.

In the theatrical cut, Robert Neville (Smith), one of the last survivors of a virus outbreak that transformed people into vicious nocturnal monsters, sacrifices himself at the end to save Anna (Alice Braga) and her son. He hands her the newly curated cure before taking down a bunch of incoming Darkseekers with a grenade.

However, the original ending of I Am Legend, as written in the book, had Robert come across a Darkseeker seemingly trying to rescue a captive mutant. In an instant, he realizes that Darkseekers are also trying to survive the apocalypse, albeit in a different form. Moreover, for them, perhaps he is the monster. As such, a remorseful Robert ultimately decides to let the Darkseekers go.

“Across the board, they were like ‘The ending is bulls—. He’s not the monster. They’re Darkseekers. They’ve been chasing them.’ And there was something that was just horrific. They couldn’t accept it. They were like, ‘No, you’re not the monster. We didn’t watch this whole movie to figure out that you’re the monster. No, they’re the monsters.’ So they felt cheated,” Will Smith revealed.

Consequently, the makers changed the original ending of I Am Legend to the alternate one. They then had to reshoot just six weeks before its release.

Source: Comingsoon.net