Will Smith Comments on The Fate of His INDEPENDENCE DAY Character

There are some very light spoilers ahead for Independence Day: Resurgence.

Even if you haven't been closely following news about the upcoming sequel to Independence Day, when the first trailer came out and Will Smith — who starred in the original — was nowhere to be seen, you could probably figure out that he wouldn't be showing up to reprise his role of Captain Steven Hiller. That's because his character was killed off during a test of alien technology, as revealed by a viral website set up by 20th Century Fox:

“While test piloting the ESD’s first alien hybrid fighter, an unknown malfunction causes the untimely death of Col. Hiller. Hiller’s valor in the War of 96 made him a beloved global icon whose selfless assault against the alien mothership lead directly to the enemy’s defeat. He is survived by his wife Jasmine and son Dylan.”

Now Smith has commented to Yahoo about his character's off-screen death:

“I was working on Suicide Squad during that time,” he said, referring to the film’s production. “[Independence Day director] Roland [Emmerich] and I had talked about it. The trailer looks really cool. I’m going to be sitting around with tears in my eyes when that one comes out… It was terrible when I found out my character died.”

Considering Suicide Squad is one of the most anticipated movies of this year, I think Smith will be just fine. Still, it would have been cool to see him reunite with Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman to fight off aliens one more time. Maybe, if this sequel does well enough and he wants to come back for a third film, someone can figure out a way for Hiller to have faked his death or something. Independence Day: Resurgence hits theaters on June 24th, 2016.