Vivica A Fox feels Independence Day 2 ‘missed out by not bringing Will Smith’ back

Will Smith led 1996 film, but was left out of its 2016 sequel due to scheduling conflicts

Vivica A Fox has admitted that she didn’t think Independence Day: Resurgence was good, nor did it “live up” to the original.

The 58-year-old actor portrayed Jasmine Hiller, the wife of Will Smith’s Captain Steven Hiller, in the 1996 sci-fi Independence Day.

Fox went on to reprise her role two decades later in director Roland Emmerich’s 2016 follow-up film. Smith, however, was left out of the sequel, saying at the time that he was unable to act in it due to scheduling conflicts.

Sharing her honest opinion about Resurgence in a recent interview with AV Club, Fox said: “I just didn’t feel like it was good and lived up to the first one.

“I really feel we missed out by not bringing Will Smith [back].”

While she acknowledged that the second instalment included “most of the original cast”, Fox said she felt that Smith’s absence was the “one true link that was missing to the success of Independence Day 2”.

Fox recalled worrying at the premiere about “how the fans are going to feel about” Smith not returning for the sequel. “And sure enough on Twitter, they blew me up,” she added.

Will Smith in ‘Independence Day’ and Vivica A Fox (Getty Images and 20th Century Studios)

In 2021, in celebration of the first film’s 25th anniversary, Emmerich and producer-writer Dean Devlin spoke with The Hollywood Reporter for an oral history of Independence Day.

During the interview, the two revealed that 20th Century Fox studio executives initially refused to cast Smith.

“The studio said, ‘No, we don’t like Will Smith. He’s unproven. He doesn’t work in international [markets],” Emmerich said, with Devlin recalling: “They said, ‘You cast a Black guy in this part, you’re going to kill foreign [box office].’”

Adamant that Smith be cast in the role, however, Devlin and Emmerich argued that “the movie is about space aliens” and therefore would “do fine” in foreign markets.

Smith went on to lead the 1996 sci-fi about aliens who invade Earth with the sole intention of destroying it, alongside Jeff Goldblum, Randy Quaid, Bill Pullman and Mary McDonnell.

Independence Day grossed $817m (£591m) worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of the year, beating out blockbusters including Twister, Scream, and Mission: Impossible for the top spot.