Will Smith Too Expensive for INDEPENDENCE DAY 2

Director Roland Emmerich is prepping up to shoot his long awaited sequel to Independence Day. It was expected that Will Smith would not return to the franchise, and in a recent interview with NY Daily News Emmerich confirmed he wouldn't be coming back because he's simply too expensive. Here's what he said:

"Will Smith cannot come back because he’s too expensive, but he’d also be too much of a marquee name. It would be too much. 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."

I don't think it's that big of a deal that Smith won't be reprising his role in the film. It would have been fun to see him come back, but I'm sure the movie will be fine without him. We will see some familiar faces, and I imagine Bill Pullman will be among them. It will be interesting to see what other characters they end up brining back.

As a fan of the first film, I'm excited to see what they are planning for this film. Emmerich didn't give much information on the plot, but he did say,  "We're not doing a total reboot, we're doing something that's totally unusual."

Screenwriter James Vanderbilt (The Amazing Spider-Man, Zodiac) is currently polishing the original script for the sequel that was initially written by Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin. 

Do you care that Smith won't be back for the sequel?