Batman Superman I Am Legend date

In 2007, audiences were treated to the first look at a World’s Finest-like team-up on the big screen. Sure, it was a movie poster appearing in Francis Lawrence’s I Am Legend, but it was there. Fast forward to today, and Warner Bros. is filming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which just so happens to have a logo very similar to the one seen in that Will Smith vehicle.

Speaking with Lawrence about The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1, opening today nationwide, Collider used the opportunity to asks about the origins of that seven-year-old Easter egg.

“The reason that it was there is that the producer and writer of I Am Legend, Akiva Goldsman, actually wrote an early, early [draft of Batman v Superman], ” the director said. He added that, if his memory served, Christopher Nolan initially was going to make Troy and Wolfgang Peterson was supposed to do Batman/Superman.

“We thought, ‘Hey, what movies would it be fun to have up on the screen when the plague hit?'” Lawrence recalled, adding that he recently saw Goldsman, who revealed the studio never gave them clearance to use the combined logo (watch the full interview below).

Although Lawrence doesn’t remember where the logo came from, it appears to be based on the one from DC Comics’ Superman/Batman series, which debuted in 2003.