Will Smith's thunderous success with Bad Boys: Ride or Die was loud enough to drown out all the backlash that has been following him for the past two years. The actor delivered one of the biggest summer blockbusters this year, marking a full-on and much-needed Hollywood comeback. This raises the question of whether the actor would now be willing to return to the Independence Day franchise after he turned down the second installment of 2016.

The director of the Academy Award-winning movie has recently shared whether fans would get to see Captain Steven Hiller back in action after nearly three decades.

Will Smith bowed out of Independence Day: Resurgence in 2016 due to some reported scheduling hiccups, as he was also tied up with Suicide Squad at the same time. Recently, during an interview with The Playlist, director Roland Emmerich was asked if a third installment of the popular movie was in the works and if Will Smith might return to the franchise. To which Emmerich gave an underwhelming response, reminding that Smith’s character had already met his end in the second film.

Adding to the disappointment, after 20th Century Fox merged with The Walt Disney Company, Emmerich feels the odds of the movie happening have taken a turn for the "worse". “They never ever did my deal,” the director said about the studio. And it makes sense given that the second film in the trilogy tanked both critically and commercially. Even though a third part did not seem likely to see the light of day, Emmerich had been holding out hope.

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In fact, he was quite eager to team up with Disney+ for Independence Day 3 a few years back.

Roland Emmerich had a lot of cool ideas to expand his Independence Day franchise. When the Disney and Fox merger happened, Emmerich was quite positive about the future of the universe he had created. He told ComicBook.com in 2021, “I would love to do maybe a third one, or a TV show, continuing the story.” However, the filmmaker was also open to passing on his legacy to another filmmaker if the stakeholders felt that was more fitting.

Emmerich also teased that the potential third part would be more connected to the first installment. This raised hopes of seeing Will Smith back in the franchise. However, the franchise could not move beyond the second part. Even though one can catch Smith's Steven Hiller on streaming options, it is doubtful whether the Independence Day trilogy will ever get its closure with the lead actor, especially after this recent disappointing interview of  Emmerich.

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What do you think about Roland Emmerich's interview? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!