After much back and forth on the matter, director Roland Emmerich has confirmed that Jeff Goldblum will indeed reprise his role as bumbling MIT genius David Levinson for Independence Day 2, and that The Hunger Games‘ Liam Hemsworth is also on board for the long-gestating sequel.
Emmerich took to his personal Twitter account earlier today to formally confirm the news:
Excited to Officially announce @LiamHemsworth and #JeffGoldblum as the next two pieces of the #IndependenceDay sequel pic.twitter.com/GNuvffKWI3
— Roland Emmerich (@rolandemmerich) March 4, 2015
This casting tidbit comes shortly after the announcement that Jessie Usher had signed on to star. In balancing the old with the new, The Hollywood Reporter states that Usher has agreed to play the key part of Will Smith’s son, Captain Steven Hiller, from the 1996 original, given that Smith himself has opted to pass on ID 2. Either way, Independence Day 2 marks the first bona fide blockbuster for the rising star, who can currently be seen in Survivor’s Remorse.
As for the actual plot of Emmerich’s sequel, not much has been divulged. Early reports suggested that, given the follow-up is on course to arrive a full twenty years after the original, the director will choose to develop the story in real time, with some astrophysics thrown in for good measure. After all, if a vengeful alien race were to traverse across the galaxy, the speed of light would dictate that their journey would take a substantial amount of time. Whether this proves to be accurate remains to be seen, but it certainly appears to be the logical path to take.
Jeff Goldblum, Liam Hemsworth and Jessie Usher will unite to save the planet when Independence Day 2 arrives in theaters on June 24, 2016.
Published: Mar 4, 2015 11:05 am