Smith told ET that he and Michael B. Jordan have some 'really solid ideas' for a follow-up to the 2007 post-apocalyptic thriller.
Will Smith and Michael B. Jordan aren't giving up on their plans for an I Am Legend sequel.
ET's Kevin Frazier spoke with Smith at a special fan screening for Bad Boys: Ride or Die on Wednesday, and the Oscar-winning actor shared an update on the planned follow-up to his 2007 post-apocalyptic thriller, which he and Jordan plan to produce and star in.
"We had a couple weeks together about a month ago," Smith said of developing the project. "I think it's looking good."
"[We have some] really solid ideas... I think we're going to make it on screen together," he added. "That dude is the truth, so I would love to do that."
I Am Legend starred Smith as the last living human in New York City following a devastating virus that wiped out most of the population and spawned deadly nocturnal mutants. At the film's end, his character finally encounters fellow survivors, leaving the door open to many possible sequel ideas.
However, as a veteran franchise star, Smith knows that it takes the right formula to keep audiences coming back. Of reteaming with Martin Lawrence for the fourth film in the Bad Boys franchise, he told ET that his standard for making a follow-up film is that it has to "stand on its own right."
"I told myself [what] I would never do to the fans is make a sequel just because it would be cool to have a sequel," he explained. "This one lives up to my standards."
"We took an aggressive shot with with this movie," he continued. "We tried to keep it exciting -- we wanted it to be a full-on popcorn movie but we wanted it to grow with the characters."
In addition to playing with their characters' advanced age -- the first Bad Boys came out nearly 30 years ago -- the franchise has also grown in terms of adding more characters for the audience to follow and root for. Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig and Paola Núñez have appeared in the last two movies as Smith and Lawrence's team members at the Advanced Miami Metro Operations, broadening the franchise's universe.
"There are multiple scenes where you will cheer for multiple characters," Smith said of the star-studded cast. "It's Mike and Marcus, just like you love them, but we've expanded and there's more room for more cast and it's open and, you know, people are smashing."
Hudgens, in particular, had to really buckle down for some of her action-packed scenes. After filming was delayed by last year's WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the actress returned to finish shooting her scenes. However, by that time, she was pregnant -- expecting her first child with husband Cole Tucker.
"She's a hard worker, she wants to get it done," Smith recalled. "I was like, 'No, don't worry, you'll always be able to tell your child that they were in this scene with you!'"
Bad Boys: Ride or Die rolls into theaters on June 7.
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