Australian actor Liam Hemsworth will star in the “Independence Day” sequel titled “ID Forever,” the New York Daily News reported.
The “Hunger Games” star was selected to join Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum, while Roland Emmerich will return the second time around for his sci-fi directorial duties. Will Smith, original star for the first film in 1996, will not be returning for the sequel.
“Will Smith cannot come back because he's too expensive, but he'd also be too much of a marquee name," Emmerich stated in 2013.
After finishing the “Hunger Games” franchise, Hemsworth recently completed the filming of “By Way of Helena”, a Western drama film directed by Kieran-Darcy Smith, also starring Woody Harrelson, Alice Braga and William Hurt.
“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 59-year-old director said.
In the 1996 blockbuster, Pullman played the role of the President and Goldblum played the part of David Levinson, a computer expert and environmentalist. Both actors will be reprising their roles in the upcoming sequel.
Emmerich also added that “ID Forever” will take place around twenty years following the events of the first film. The German director explained the significance of wormholes for traveling in space as well as the concept of “parallel history.”
“The humans knew that one day the aliens would come back, and they know that the only way you can really travel in space is through wormholes,” Emmerich explained. “So for the aliens, it could take two or three weeks, but for us that’s 20 or 25 years. It’s a changed world. It’s like parallel history."
With the first “Independence Day” raking in $817.4 million at the international box office, most critics have high expectations for “ID Forever” that will hit theaters on June 24, 2016.
