Director Roland Emmerich on the Independence Day sequel: No Will Smith and only one film (for now)

June 24th 2013, 10:16am

Last week a release date was announced for INDEPENDENCE DAY 2, which came as a bit of a surprise considering it wasn't clear when the project was officially green light and there hadn't been that much news about the film recently.

Emmerich is promoting his latest film WHITE HOUSE DOWN and in an interview with Collider he revealed some new details about a sequel to INDEPENDENCE DAY. Since the film is scheduled to be released in 2015 many thought he'd start work on INDEPENDENCE DAY 2 soon and in the interview Emmerich confirms he wants the sequel to be his next project.

Roland Emmerich and co-writer/producer Dean Devlin had already said that the film would take place twenty years after the first (which is still the plan apparently) but at this point there will be only one film and not two as previously reported.

I think they decided to only do one first.

"They" of course being Fox and you can't blame them for being a little cautious about opening up their checkbooks for two big budget sequels based on a twenty year old movie. However I'm sure if the sequel is a big hit a third movie could be developed very quickly.

Roland Emmerich also spoke to the NY Daily News about the sequel and said that while some characters from the first film might appear in the new film, Will Smith's Captain Steven Hiller will not be back.

Will Smith can not come back because he's too expensive, but he'd also be too much of a marquee name. It would be too much. We have like maybe half of the people that you know would know from the first film (in the script) and the other half people who are new.

I think most people will be fine with Will Smith not returning if there's a chance that Jeff Goldblum and/or Bill Pullman will back for the sequel. I know I am. INDEPENDENCE DAY 2 probably doesn't need to happen and there's always a chance it could turn out putrid but I'm willing to give it a shot. The first one isn't a work of art in the first place and it's not like anyone is expecting ID4 2 to be a deep, intelligent sci-fi film. But if it's another enjoyable popcorn flick with some awesome visuals of the world under attack then I'm game.

INDEPENDENCE DAY 2 is scheduled to be released on July 3rd, 2015 while Emmerich's next film WHITE HOUSE DOWN with Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx is out June 28th, 2013.