Roland Emmerich, the director of Independence Day, along with Dean Devlin, have long had plans to expand the movie into a trilogy. However, Roland recently revealed that the likelihood of making Independence Day 3 is very low, indicating that the project is in danger of being canceled.
Why Independence Day 3 is in danger of being canceled
In an interview with The Playlist, Roland Emmerich talked about the possibility of working with Will Smith again for Independence Day 3. He revealed that he finds it difficult to make it happen.
The reason for this was two factors. First, the character Will Smith played had died in the previous movie. Then secondly, the copyright issues of the franchise now made the production process more complicated.
“Yes, it’s true. I said, ‘[Will’s character] dies in the second movie,'” said Roland Emmerich, as quoted by yoursay.
“But now, the decision is in Disney’s hands, and it’s worse, because they never approved my deal,” he further said.
The failure of Independence Day: Resurgence
Previously, there were many responses from audiences and critics to the release of Independence Day: Resurgence in 2016. Several stars from the previous movie, such as Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Brent Spiner, and Vivica A. Fox, are still participating, but Will Smith is not joining.
Will Smith was previously set to be one of the main characters in this sequel. However, his participation in the movie Suicide Squad and the unsatisfactory response to the movie After Earth are considered as the main reasons why he did not participate in Resurgence.
At first, Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin had a meeting with Will Smith to pitch their idea. After that, they wrote a screenplay with Will Smith as the main character and sent it to the studio.
The studio was very impressed with the screenplay and gave it a quick approval. They even called it the best first script they had ever read.
However, Will Smith suddenly decided to cancel his participation. Devlin suspects that this decision was due to his less-than-successful experiences with previous sci-fi films and also concerns over the fate of the similar Independence Day sequel.
However, despite this, the studio is still eager to move forward with the Resurgence project, even though they are facing various problems and delays in the movie development process.
While it can’t be said to be an overall failure at the box office, Independence Day: Resurgence had disappointing results in terms of revenue and ratings.
The first movie made an impressive $817.4 million worldwide, while the sequel only made $389.7 million. We can say that this series has experienced a considerable decline.
