Jessie Usher, Jeff Goldblum, and Liam Hemsworth will welcome aliens to Earth in Independence Day 2
The original Independence Day is loaded with iconic performances, from Bill Pullman playing a fighter pilot president to Randy Quaid playing himself, but none of them are as iconic as Will Smith’s Captain Steven Hiller, a guy who punched an alien in the face and helped use an Apple Powerbook to destroy a spaceship. With Smith not returning for the sequel—probably because the studio wouldn’t cast one of his kids—Fox has had to find someone else to fill the boots of his flight suit, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, it has found that in Jessie Usher. The star of Lebron James’ Survivor’s Remorse series, Usher will be playing the son of Will Smith’s character and, presumably, the lead.
Usher won’t be welcoming aliens to Earth all on his own, though, as director Roland Emmerich has confirmed that both Jeff Goldblum and Liam Hemsworth (who was rumored to be in talks for this back in January) are joining him for the Independence Day sequel. Goldblum co-starred in the original film as the Jeff Goldblum-type character, so he already has experience welcoming things to Earth, but Hemsworth is new, and we don’t yet know who he’ll be playing. However, given that this is an Independence Day movie, we’d guess he’ll either be a fighter pilot, a fighter pilot president, or Randy Quaid.
ID4-2—a nonsensical abbreviation that we hope becomes official—will be in theaters on June 24, 2016.