Remember there was a Independence Day following? Unlike many late follow-ups in our franchise era, Recurrence failed to live up to its original, both critically and at the box office. You might even forget it exists. He managed to bring back most of the original cast – even Judd Hirsch! – but it was arguably missing its biggest star. And that, one of the actresses of the film, admits that may be a big reason why he failed to gain fame.
“I really feel like we missed out on not bringing Will Smith back,” Vivica A. Fox said. The audiovisual club (as caught by Weekly entertainment). “We had most of the original cast, but I think the only real link that was missing to the success of Independence Day 2 was that Will Smith wasn’t there.”
Fox, who played Jasmine, Smith’s character’s girlfriend, recalls her state of mind at Recurrenceis the first. “I was like, ‘Mmm, let’s see how the fans are going to feel about this.’ And of course, on Twitter, they blew me away.
The first one Independence Day, beginning in 1996, helped turn Smith from popular star to mega-popular. By the time the sequel finally began, it was deemed too expensive to launch. So they killed his character, which Smith found “terrible”.
“I was working on Suicide Squad during that time,” Smith said. Yahoo! in 2015. “Roland [Emmerich, director] and I talked about it. The trailer looks really cool. I’m going to be sitting with tears in my eyes when this one comes out.
Of course, these days, Smith might be a little easier to get.
(Via The audiovisual club And EO)