20th Century Fox has made it official and given the go ahead to the INDEPENDENCE DAY sequel, ID4EVER, to begin production in May of next year. While the studio locked in a release date a while back, this is the first official step forward since Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin worked on the screenplay. We have heard rumors that Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman may reprise their roles from the 1996 summer blockbuster, but no actors have been locked in at this point. In fact, Emmerich himself isn’t even locked in as director yet.
What we do know for certain is that Will Smith will not be back. Deadline also confirmed that the plan to shoot two sequels back to back is also dead and ID4EVER will be a single film. The screenplay was originally written by Emmerich and Devlin with both Carter Blanchard and James Vanderbilt penning revisions to the alien invasion movie.
INDEPENDENCE DAY remains one of the most fun summer movies I have ever been to but making a second a good two decades after the original is a loaded proposition. On one hand, it could be awesome and live up to the original, but on the other it could be another DUMB AND DUMBER TO and be a sequel we never really needed (or one that was made far too late).
For now, we can begin the casting call. ID4EVER hits theaters on June 24, 2016.