'Independence Day 2' News: Jeff Goldblum & Bill Pullman Reprise Roles in 2015 Roland Emmerich Sequel, Still No Will Smith

Independence Day 2 has been rumored to be happening for years, but it looks like we are finally getting a sequel the 1996's hit alien invasion thriller. Director Roland Emmerich is returning and it looks like star Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum will reprise their roles in the sequel as well. These two actors have shown interest in a sequel for quite some time, so they are surely excited to be signed on. Emmerich also revealed that this new movie will tell the beginning of a three (or possibly four) -part film series.

Here is what Roland Emmerich said of the new story line:

"The humans knew that one day the aliens would come back. And they know that the only way you can really travel in space is through wormholes. So for the aliens, it could take two or three weeks, but for us that's 20 or 25 years ... It's a changed world. It's like parallel history. [Humans] have harnessed all this alien technology. We don't know how to duplicate it because it's organically-grown technology, but we know how to take an antigravity device and put it in a human airplane ... It's still some of the same characters, but also new younger characters; it's a little bit like the sons take over. The first one ends on a little success, but only enough to give the humans hope. And then in the second one they free themselves again [from the aliens]."

But what about the 1996 film's star, Will Smith?

"Will Smith can not come back because he's too expensive, but he'd also be too much of a marquee name," Emmerich said. "It would be too much. We have like maybe half of the people that you know would know from the first film (in the script) and the other half people who are new."