Independence Day 2 Coming in Summer 2015 Without Will Smith

Independence Day 2 Coming in Summer 2015 Without Will SmithWhen Independence Day 2, expected to be officially titled ID Forever, Part 1, rolls into theaters on July 3, 2015, there will be a notable absence amongst the cast of returning and new characters.

In speaking with the NY Daily News while promoting White House Down, director Roland Emmerich stated that Will Smith will not be returning to the ID franchise when it relaunches in a couple years. Per Emmerich the actor is “too expensive” and “too much of a marquee name.” It would simply be “too much” to include him in the cast.

“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,” Emmerich added, trying to justify Smith’s exclusion and arguably the main character of the first film.

With Smith out, attention will now return to Jeff Goldblum who played Smith’s unlikely companion in the final attack on an alien mothership in Independence Day. Emmerich also confirmed that some, but not all, of the surviving characters from the original would appear. Who, and in what capacity, is being kept under ways.

Emmerich and his long-time producing partner Dean Devlin co-wrote the Independence Day 2 script, which is currently getting tweaked by James Vanderbilt. Emmerich has openly discussed his plans for two more Independence Day films that are expected to be a continuous story broken into Parts 1 and 2.

The original Independence Day was released in 1996 so the sequel will be arriving nearly 20 years later. Though plot details are being kept under wraps, it’s highly likely the aliens are ticked off after their previous defeat and we might get to see some of their immense ground forces that were briefly shown ready for deployment before Goldblum and Smith uploaded a computer virus via an Apple Computer into the alien mothership mainframe.

Source: NY Daily News

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