Since we are on the eve of the Roland Emmerich release of White House Down/Olympus Has Fallen 2.0/Die Hard 5.2/White House Explodes Yet Again, however you want to call the movie, it’s ample time to address the ID4 sequel. The director has been getting questions about the sequel and who’s coming back, who’s not, and the major news has come out: Will Smith will NOT be return to defend planet Earf.
According to Emmerich via the Hollywood Reporter, Will Smith won’t be coming back for the sequels ID Forever Part I and Part II (get it, ID FORever, that’s so 2 Fast 2 Furious) and not because After Earth crapped its pants commercially and critically (seriously, why do a movie where Will Smith has to dial his charisma from a 10 back down to a 2), but because he’s too big. That’s right, he priced himself out of the action movie franchise that made him. According to Emmerich, the story concentrates on the younger generation that must learn to defend themselves from the alien reinforcements that come back to conquer Earth. Of course, that meant a concentration of younger (read: cheaper) stars for the movie so having Will Smith for a smaller role apparently meant the money wasn’t worth it to overshadow whoever else decided to come aboard. Which is understandable, and Will Smith wouldn’t agree to a smaller role most likely, seeing as he’s pretty picky about his roles, as evidenced with the Django Unchained casting of Jamie Foxx. Regardless, Emmerich decided that he’s too much of a marquee name and it would be “too much”. Yes, because Roland Emmerich movies are usually defined by their subtlety.
However, who will be coming back is your favorite bicycle-riding, computer tech guy know-it-all, Jeff Goldblum and terrific speech giver and fighter pilot President Bill Pullman. According to Vulture, these dudes will be making a return because they need to cover rent. That and I imagine if that if my President was one of the fighter pilots that brought down one of the ships, he deserves a mention in the next few movies. That and I’m sure Goldblum will have some sort of speech about the environment and nuclear deterrents that will provide a subtle message about mistreating planet Earth. Or they just bridge the 20 year gap between the sequels. Who knows. It would be interesting if they bring back Mae Whitman (her?) to reprise her role as the President’s daughter. Heck, just bring back Adam Baldwin and I’d be perfectly content with that.
Regardless, this sequel is coming and I’m sure we’ll see more fun stuff get destroyed. Although I guess since the aliens destroyed everything the first time around, we’ll just have to wait and see on July 3rd, 2015 if they get to destroy the recreations of major landmarks. Just because it’s starting to get really redundant in seeing the White House destroyed over and over again… Bonus though, courtesy of YouTube user CinemaSins, you can experience ID4 all over again…now with glaring errors and commentary!
Grizzly Bomb 