The original Independence Day was one of the biggest summer blockbusters of the '90s. It made Will Smith a 4th of July weekend institution for years. The sequel....was not that. Independence Day: Resurgence was unable to cause a resurgence of interest in the franchise, at least domestically, and now the future is even more clouded in mystery because the studio that made the first two films, 20th Century Fox, technically doesn't even exist anymore.
Independence Day was a 20th Century Fox film and no movie will ever come from a studio called that ever again. Starting next weekend the Disney-owned 20th Century Studios will release The Call of the Wild, the first film under the new banner of what used to be 20th Century Fox.
This puts the future of Independence Day in the hands of Disney, and so director Roland Emmerich has no idea what the future might hold. At this point, it seems he's mostly just sad that even if Independence Day does live again, it will do so without 20th Century Fox. According to Emmerich...
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. It's just so sad. That's the movies. The movie industry is constantly changing.
20th Century Fox existed as a studio for nearly 100 years and was one of the major names in the industry for decades. It's a major blow to the industry in general that the studio no longer exists. Having fewer big studios isn't good for creativity. And it does also hit cinema fans hard to see the studio behind some of Hollywood's greatest films ever made fade away.
It seems for Roland Emmerich, because he worked with 20th Century Fox, he's actually taking it kind of personally based on what he tells ComicBook.com.
If you were hoping for the future of Independence Day franchise, the bad news is that there clearly aren't any plans for anything, but mostly because, as Roland Emmerich says, he hasn't had any time to explore anything following the Disney acquisition. Who knows? Maybe Disney would be interested in doing something with the property.
Independence Day: Resurgence was supposed to be the first in a new series of films, but the project fell mostly flat at the box office, which made the planned movies quite unlikely to materialize. At this point, under the new Disney bosses, it seems quite likely that even if a way forward is found, it won't be with Roland Emmerich's planned films, but anything is possible. As the director says, the movie industry is constantly changing, and sometimes that means ideas that were out of favor before gain new interest.
Midway is available now on Digital and on 4K Ultra HD , Blu-ray and DVD February 18.
