Who will punch our aliens now? Independence Day director Roland Emmerich says that Will Smith is "too expensive" to appear in the sequel.


Just yesterday, we were saying that it might be nice to see Smith sock an alien or two again, but in an interview with the NY Daily News, Emmerich says that Smith is a no-go:

"Will Smith can not come back because he's too expensive, but he'd also be too much of a marquee name," said Emmerich, while promoting his latest film, "White House Down." "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," the German director added.


Emmerich says that the sequel, which is scheduled to come out July 3, 2015, will be the first part of a two-part story, tentatively titled ID Forever. He also joked that he thinks some aliens might be back for his alien invasion movie. They are cheap enough, it seems.

Will Smith won’t be in ‘Independence Day 2,’ director confirms [NY Daily News via Bleeding Cool]