Director Roland Emmerich knows that the world doesn’t need an Independence Day sequel. It needs two Independence Day sequels. Luckily, he’s all too willing to provide, and he’s given us some info on what ID Forever Part One and ID Forever Part Two (yes, those are their titles. I refuse to say anything good about them, even sarcastically) will be about.
I’m not saying it’s aliens. But it’s aliens.
Explained Emmerich to EW.com, the films will take place about 20-25 years (in human time) after ID4—but that’s only a few weeks for the aliens, who received a distress call from their defeated brethren and high-tailed it through a worm hole (thus the time discrepancy) to get to us and wreak some havoc.
In the intervening years, says Emmerich, humans “have harnessed all this alien technology. We don’t know how to duplicate it because it’s organically-grown technology, but we know how to take an antigravity device and put it in a human airplane.” But while humanity has leveled up, so have the aliens, who “also do different things.”
Bill Pullman has confirmed that he’d onboard for any sequels, but we’ve yet to hear from Will Smith as to whether he’s up to fight the aliens a second (and third) time. Even if Smith’s character, Captain Steve Hiller, won’t be around to welcome the new, improved aliens to Earth, his stepson will; Emmerich has confirmed that the adorable moppet Dylan, now all grown up, will be one of the “new, younger characters” to fight alongside some from the first movie.
And in that statement I have my silver lining: If ID Forever Parts One and Two take place 20-25 years after ID4, at least that means Will Smith’s real-life son Jaden Smith will be too young to play his on-screen stepson.
I mean, the sequels could be good. ID4 isn’t really a cinematic masterpiece on the grounds of its script or excellent acting or story anyway; it’s a cinematic masterpiece on the grounds that it’s fun and exciting and blows a ton of stuff up without being stupid about it. I don’t want to write the sequels off right away, because it’s possible for them to replicate that magic; even if they don’t, it’s possible for them not to suck.
But I can’t get Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull out of my head. Revisiting a beloved franchise after decades tends not to go well, and I can’t help but think that maybe Independence Day 4 should just be left alo…
Oh, God. I’ve just jinxed Star Wars.
(via: /Film)
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