Independence Day 2’s story was originally very different
Independence Day: Resurgence is now not far away from its release, 20 years since the first film debuted in 1996. But director Roland Emmerich has revealed that a sequel did almost happen in 2001 and it would have been very different to the upcoming film.
Emmerich told Empire magazine that the originally planned sequel would have been released just after the terrible events of 9/11:
“It was after 9/11 and Dean [Devlin – producer] and I wanted to make the movie about peace, and it just didn’t work,”
“There’s still an element of that in the new one, but that version was only about that. We shoot aliens down accidentally and then at the end of the movie they land on the White House lawn and say “we come in peace” and that was it. It was just too weak an idea and we didn’t really want to do it. It didn’t have an Independence Day feel. Only the alien ship was destroyed!”
Emmerich also revealed that if the movie does well, then a third film could very well happen:
“If it’s successful enough, yes, because it’s set up for a sequel.”
Independence Day: Resurgence hits U.S. cinemas on July 24th.