'Independence Day 2' Release Date, Cast and Plot Rumors: Jeff Goldblum Returns, Liam Hemsworth Joining Cast
Exactly 20 years after the release of science fiction film "Independence Day," its sequel will be released on June 20, 2016, called "Independence Day 2." This much has been confirmed by the film's director Roland Emmerich.
Will Smith, who played one of the lead characters in the first film, will not be joining the cast this time.
Emmerich told Screen Rant that Smith is "too expensive" and that they want "maybe half of the people that you know would know from the first film (in the script) and the other half who are new."
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Jeff Goldblum is one of the actors who will return and reprise his role as the computer expert who helped Will Smith fight the aliens. The new actors cast in new roles include Liam Hemsworth and Jessie Usher. While it is not yet known what character Hemsworth will play, Usher will play the grown-up son of Will Smith who will be the one fighting the aliens in the movie.
Emmerich is said to be working with Dean Devlin on the script for the sequel. In reports as early as 2013, Emmerich revealed initial plot details for the sequel. According to a report in Entertainment Weekly, the sequel will take place in a modern-day setting, exactly twenty years after the events of the first film. It will happen in "a parallel history," where humans are said to "have harnessed all this alien technology" which they will use to fight the aliens who are coming back to invade earth. The director even mentioned plans of not just one, but two sequels.
The sequel will be directed by Emmerich, with Dean Devlin, Harald Kloser and himself as producers. Twentieth Century Fox was said to have given the sequel a green light for the film's development as early as November 2014.
"Independence Day" which is also known as "Independence Day Forever," earned over $800 million when it was first released in 1996.
