It’s close encounters of the sequel kind. The runaway hit Independence Day has a sequel Independence Day: Resurgence and it is slated to hit screens on Earth in 2016, 20 years (yes, it’s been that long) after the 1996 alien invasion blockbuster broke box office records.
In a twist that only the film-makers saw coming, Earth is about to be invaded again. But l ooks like Will Smith won’t be back as the lead to help save the planet this time around. Thankfully, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, and Vivica A Fox will still be around. Also joining the cast will be The Hunger Games star Liam Hemsworth.
“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,” Emmerich told The New York Daily News in 2013 . So to deal with his absence, they are conveniently killing him off. Damn.
Along with the trailer, Fox launched a website called The War of 1996 showing a timeline of events since the film in 1996. It fills in some of the blanks offering up an alternate history from 1996 to the present day, and a few of the technological breakthroughs made by reverse-engineering the tech left behind by the alien invaders.
Independence Day: Resurgence will hit theatres on 24 June, 2016.