Will Smith will not return for ‘Independence Day 2’

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Shortly after Twentieth Century Fox’s announcement Thursday that Independence Day 2 will hit theaters in 2015, the films’ director Roland Emmerich confirmed Will Smith, the star of the 1996 original, will not be returning for the sequel.

“Will Smith can not come back because he’s too expensive, but he’d also be too much of a marquee name,” Emmerich said to the New York Daily News. “It would be too much.”

Bill Pullman, Smith’s co-star in Independence Day, is set to return to reprise his role as President Thomas J. Whitmore, according to Crave Online.

Emmerich, original producer Dean Devlin and screenwriter James Vanderbilt are working on the script’s final touches.

“We’re not doing a total reboot, we’re doing something that’s totally unusual,” Emmerich said.

Independence Day 2 is set to hit theaters July 3, 2015, nearly two decades after the original.

Follow Carrie Healey on Twitter @CarrieHeals.