A number of obstacles might stand in the way of the Independence Day franchise moving forward, but director of the original film and its sequel Roland Emmerich is still holding out hope that he could make a third film one day, as he shares excitement about his idea for the direction to take the series. Emmerich noted that one of the biggest complications with the franchise is that the first two films were produced by 20th Century Fox, which has since been purchased by Disney, which would leave it up to that studio to decide if they want to continue the series in some capacity.
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“I don’t know. I really haven’t even gotten to it,” Emmerich shared with CinemaBlend when asked about a third film being developed. “I had naturally talked with Fox about it, and then when they got bought, I kind of said, ‘Well, that’s probably [over.]’ But I don’t know. We’ll see, it’s kind of like it could happen, it could not happen. Hollywood is like a strange, strange place these days, because I have a feeling Disney would maybe be interested in doing it. They like that kind of franchise movie.”
The original 1996 film was a major sensation, which made audiences immensely excited for the first sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence. Ahead of that film’s release, it was reported to be the first of two planned sequels, but that film’s critical and financial disappointments seemingly stagnated all hope for that second sequel.
While it’s unclear if Emmerich abandoned those original plans for the third film or not, he admitted he is still toying with a concept he’s excited by for the possible completion of the trilogy.
“I have an idea for Independence Day 3, which I actually researched, and was actually only done to do the next one,” the filmmaker confessed. “And the next one is a kind of cool idea, and I would like to do that.”
Despite that excitement to continue the franchise, Emmerich previously detailed that he is still dealing with the emotional fallout of the disappearance of a studio he worked so closely with.
“For Independence Day, it’s now owned by Disney so I haven’t really had time to explore that because I was actually so sad that a studio which I made two movies for all of a sudden disappears,” Emmerich shared with ComicBook.com. “It’s just so sad. That’s the movies. The movie industry is constantly changing.”
Stay tuned for details on the future of the Independence Day franchise.
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