Will Smith plays Captain Steven Hiller in the 1996 "Independence Day." (Photo : YouTube / 20th Century Fox UK)
Any big fan of the 1996 "Independence Day" and of the Jeff Goldblum-Will Smith tandem would miss the latter in the upcoming "Independence Day: Resurgence." Smith's character in the June 24 film, Captain Steven Hiller is killed.
Smith was originally in the highly-anticipated sequel, to project a strong father-son relationship of Captain Hiller and Dylan Dubrow. The actor then starred in "After Earth," a sci-fi film with a father-son theme which did not have a good performance in the box office. After that, he seemed to lose interest in doing another film with a similar theme.
"In the very beginning, I wanted to work with him and he was excited to be in it," "Independence Day: Resurgence," Director Roland Emmerich told Cinemablend. "But then after a while he was tired of sequels, and he did another science fiction film, which was his father-son story, so he opted out."
The sequel will kill Captain Hiller in a tech training accident, Dean Devlin, producer and co-writer of the sequel film told the entertainment news site. Though disappointing to fans, it may be the best for the film since having Smith in the project could make a Will Smith-leading movie, instead of a collective film, just like the original one.
However, Emmerich had disclosed Smith was too expensive to include. Having the actor in the sequel would be too much, he told the New York Daily News in 2013. The German director then added that half of the people from the original film will show, plus new face.
Though there were claims that Smith opted to be out of the sequel, it could be possible that the crew behind the upcoming film may have killed Captain Hiller already before having talks with the actor. In fact, Smith was shocked to see his character being killed off when the sequel's trailer started to come out in December.
"Independence Day: Resurgence" stars the original actors Goldblum, Vivica A. Fox, Judd Hirsch and Bill Pulman. New faces are also introduced, including Liam Hemsworth and Jessie Usher who will play pilots.
Watch the trailer of "Independence Day: Resurgence" below:
