Last night the trailer for Independence Day: Resurgence landed, and it’s fantastic. There’s only one problem, it’s lacking Will Smith. Smith played the role of Captain Steve Hiller, the badass fly-boy who, along with Jeff Goldblum, saved the world in the first film. But why is Smith missing from the sequel? We can answer that.
Director Roland Emmerich told Collider in an interview back in June that Smith was “just tired of sequels” and was not interested in doing another science-fiction movie after his 2013 film After Earth. It starred Smith and his son, and it crashed and burned.
So, you may be wondering how they explain Smith’s absence. We can answer that too. In the sequel we will learn that Smith was killed in a training accident. According to Fox he was killed when alien technology malfunctioned in 2007. Let’s be honest, Resurgence looks great, but it won’t be the same without Smith’s wit.
