Independence Day: Resurgence has so far not been a hit with either critics or filmgoers, earning a meager 34% on Rotten Tomatoes and taking in a disheartening $41.6 million domestically in its opening weekend. But, whether people like it or not (probably not), they’re likely going to be subjected to a second sequel to 1996’s Independence Day in the near future. However, since there’s theoretically only so many times that director Roland Emmerich can destroy iconic monuments on the Earth, it appears that the next time around, he’ll be destroying iconic monuments on a distant planet. On the off chance that anybody reading this actually planning on seeing Resurgence, we’ll opt against giving away any overt spoilers. Let it suffice to say that at the end of this film, our beleaguered Earthling heroes learn the secret of intergalactic travel via wormhole technology, and somebody says, “Let’s kick some alien ass!”
Emmerich revealed his plans for the next unwanted Independence Day sequel in an interview with Empire. “The next one will be an intergalactic journey. It’ll be [set] maybe a year or two later, not 20 years,” Emmerich warned. “I want to maintain this group of people, especially the young characters, and Jeff [Goldblum] and Brent [Spiner] will take part in it. It’ll be fun to keep that group together… I imagine them now going in one of these ships they’ve rebuilt into a wormhole. I think it’ll be the classic of going into space but it has to be about Earth, and we have a really good idea for that.” The 60-year-old German annihilation fetishist also put to bed any assumptions that step away from the director’s chair for the as-yet-untitled next installment, saying, “Will I definitely direct it? Oh yes. I’d never, ever let someone else do it.” If studio executives let him do it, anyway.