Will Smith has turned down the offer to star in the sequel to Independence Day.
In June last year (2013) the long-awaited sequel was given an official release date: July 3, 2015. Shortly afterwards director Roland Emmerich said Smith would not be reprising his role from Independence Day because he is now “too expensive”, but then last month (September) Emmerich revealed the situation had changed and Smith was now in talks to return.
Emmerich also revealed that there was two versions of the Independence Day 2 script written. One version featured Will Smith‘s character Captain Steve Hillier, Emmerich explained during an interview with The Playlist, whereas the other does not. Emmerich then added that “it’s looking good” for the version that does feature Smith.
However, Deadline has now reported that Will Smith will now not appear in the sequel, citing a reliable source. No official confirmation has been released so far. The film, however, will still be made.
Emmerich has already confirmed that Bill Pullman will be back as President Thomas J Whitmore and Jeff Goldblum (pictured) will be returning as geeky computer expert David Levinson. The original film, released in 1996, followed a last-ditch effort to thwart an alien invasion taking place on July 4 – the day of America’s annual Independence Day holiday.
Emmerich wrote the original Independence Day with Dean Devlin and the pair also collaborated on the scripts for the sequel, which have recently had a rewrite from James Vanderbilt (The Amazing Spider-Man, Zodiac).
