It might disappoint you that Dr. Ian Malcolm will not be featured in Colin Trevorrow's upcoming Jurassic Park sequel Jurassic World, but don't take that to mean that Jeff Goldblum is done reprising characters he played back in the 1990s. In fact, it turns out that he may be doing one very soon, as director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin have already approached him about the in-development Independence Day 2.
This cool bit of news was recently dropped by Goldblum during an interview with Time Magazine. The actor says that he has been meeting and talking with Emmerich and Devlin over the last several months and confirmed that they are making room for him to return as computer expert David Levinson. But while the film is currently penciled in for a July 2016 release date - courtesy of 20th Century Fox - Goldblum added that the state of the project seems to be a bit up in the air and that he wasn't entirely sure when things would actually get moving on it. Said Goldblum,
"'Nebulous until actually' is what that file is under, but yeah, they’re still talking about it and I’ve heard recent rumblings here and there about it, and 'Oh, there’s a scripting coming in' — maybe last weekend there was a script handed in, so it’s brewing.
If Jeff Goldblum does officially decide to take the plunge, sign a deal, and be a part of Independence Day 2, he will be the second actor from the original to do so. Bill Pullman is also going to be reprising his role, playing President Thomas Whitmore (though presumably he will be an ex-president in the movie). Exciting as it is to have these two supporting players coming back, however, the same cannot be said for Independence Day's lead. Will Smith has decided that he doesn't want to be a part of the upcoming sequel. This is certainly not great news for the production, but it also doesn't really slow things down, given that the film has been working with two completely different scripts: one with Capt. Steven Hiller and one without.
In order to make its scheduled release date on July 1, 2016 - almost exactly 20 years after the original - Independence Day 2 will need to go into production next year, most likely sometime during the second quarter. This means that things are likely going to start seriously ramping up over the next few months, and the fact that a new script was just recently handed in is definitely good news. The coming weeks and months should likely feature all kinds of updates, from new cast members and character reveals to production start dates and locations. As always, we'll keep you updated with the latest information, so stay tuned!
