Independence Day Could Have Had A Very Different Kind Of Sequel

Independence Day: Resurgence director (and master of blowing up the Earth onscreen) Roland Emmerich is guest-editing for Empire online this week. His features include a fan Q&A about the Independence Day franchise—which revealed a few details about a scrapped Independence Day sequel.

Here's the full quote, via Empire:

It was after 9/11 and [partner Dean Devlin] and I wanted to make the movie about peace, and it just didn't work. There's still an element of that in the new one, but that version was only about that. We shoot aliens down accidentally and then at the end of the movie they land on the White House lawn and say "we come in peace" and that was it. It was just too weak an idea and we didn't really want to do it. It didn't have an Independence Day feel. Only the alien ship was destroyed!

The idea of Emmerich—a filmmaker known for dreaming up blockbuster scenarios full of mass death and the destruction of iconic landmarks—spinning the Independence Day story in a peaceful direction is admittedly intriguing. But in the immortal words of Megadeath's Dave Mustaine: "Peace sells, but who's buying?" The idea just didn't work, and 20 years after the original raked in millions, he's releasing the only sequel that made sense: one where the Earth gets blowed up real good.

Independence Day: Resurgence is scheduled to arrive in theaters on June 24, 2016.