Though many assumed it to be public knowledge at this point, Fox went ahead and officially greenlit Independence Day 2 just last week, signalling that the wheels had finally begun to turn on the long-gestating sequel. However, the studio was strangely quite on the extent of their plans for continuations.
After all, the company left fans of the original reeling when it announced that director Roland Emmerich would bring two follow-ups to audiences, with plans to film the installments back-to-back. But producer Dean Devlin elaborated on those plans in an interview with Nerd Report, stating that both he and Emmerich only have plans to do one sequel…for now.
“We decided just to do one first to make sure that people like where we’re going. If that works well, there’s an ability to do some world building which would be really fun and interesting to do. I think Roland and everybody felt, let’s just make sure 20 years later that people still are interested. I think in our case, we started to feel that maybe we were being a little bit arrogant by assuming that we could do two movies. We said you know what, let’s scale it down. Let’s first make sure that it works for everyone.”
Using this knowledge, it appears as though Independence Day 2 is very much acting as a litmus test for Fox, and given that the first film arrived in 1996, their diplomatic approach is hardly surprising.
In accordance with previous reports, it’s understood that star Will Smith won’t be back for the follow-up, though it’s unclear whether other actors like Jeff Goldblum will reprise their roles.
Elsewhere in the snippet, Devlin also touched upon the status of Emmerich’s Stargate reboot, but conceded that ID takes priority for the time being.
“Unfortunately, we have to wait until we finish Independence Day for that. Roland wants to direct that one too. Hopefully we go into that right afterwards.”
By the time Fox nudge the sequel onto the silver screen, Independence Day 2 may prove to be a sequel twenty years in the making, given that the original made its blockbuster debut all the way back in ’96. Either way, what are your thoughts on the potential for new films in the franchise, do you think the IP has the gangly, alien legs for several sequels?