Will Smith informed Fox that he won't be reprising his role as fighter pilot Captain Steven Hiller in the upcoming "Independence Day" sequel, Deadline reports. Last year, it was reported that the big-budget sci-fi flick has two scripts planned for the sequel, one with Smith and one without. It seems that the producers will be going with the one without the actor.

Back then, director Roland Emmerich said Smith was "too expensive" and "too marquee" for the sequel. But even without Smith, the movie will push through with Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman reprising their roles from the first film. Pullman played the U.S. President Thomas Whitmore while Goldblum was the computer genius who saved the world by uploading a virus to the alien mothership.

The sequel will also feature new faces since it will be focusing on a new generation tasked with battling the reinforcements sent by the alien invaders. As to who will play the young-blood characters, there are no formal announcements yet but 27-year-old actor Michael B. Jordan is rumored to star in it.  

Although details about Jordan's supposed character are still unclear, there is a great possibility that he would be playing Smith's stepson from his girlfriend-turned-wife in the first film played by Vivica A. Fox. If this is true, let's just hope that Jordan is up to the task of welcoming aliens to Earth with sucker punches and smoking cigars.

"Independence Day 2", which is also known as "ID Forever", was originally scheduled for release in July of 2015. However, it was moved to July 2016 to mark the film's 20th anniversary and to avoid competing in a busy summer alongside "Ant-Man", "Jurassic World", "The Fantastic Four", and "Terminator: Genesis".

The first movie was the highest grossing film of 1996 which earned $104.3 million during its opening week. Hoping to capitalize on its success, various film studios produced their own large-scale disaster films following "Independence Day"'s release.