Everyone is under the impression that Will Smith doesn’t appear in Independence Day: Resurgence because he said ‘no’ to returning.
This is what Will Smith’s cute stepson from Independence Day looks like now
However, director Roland Emmerich says it was nothing to do with that.
Speaking to HeyUGuys, the filmmaker said they ditched Will’s character Captain Steve Hiller – by killing him off 11 years before the events of the sequel – because they wanted to introduce a younger generation.
‘The first script included Will Smith, and it was a totally different story,’ Roland explained. ‘It was a father-son story, but that didn’t work. So, I said “lets explore other possibilities.”
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‘Maybe two years ago it fully hit me. I hired two young writers and they said, “This has to be a hand off to a younger generation.” And that was, I thought, the real trick to make this work.’
Hardly seems like a hand-off to a younger generation considering how prominent a role Jeff Goldblum’s character David Levinson seems to play as he teams up with Liam Hemsworth’s pilot Jake Morrison.
And there also seems to be a lot of old faces from the original Independence Day including Jasmine Hiller (Vivicia A. Fox), Julius Levinson (Judd Hirsch) and of course President Whitmore (Bill Pullman).
Who knows what to believe!
Check out Independence Day: Resurgence in cinemas June 23
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