Independence Day 2 Movie News: Jessie Usher to Play Will Smith's Character's Son

Jessie Usher
Jessie Usher |

The 1996 film Independence Day starring A-list Hollywood actor Will Smith was a box office success, and now its sequel Independence Day 2 is in the works with Survivor's Remorse star Jessie Usher playing the lead character.

Cinema Blend said that Usher will play Captain Steven Hiller's son Dylan Hiller in the sequel, which will be directed by Roland Emmerich. He will co-star with Australian actor Liam Hemsworth (The Hunger Games) and Jeff Goldblum (from the original Independence Day movie).

Usher has appeared in several movies and television shows including the football drama When the Game Stands Tall. He has made appearances in Without a Trace, Hannah Montana, The Mentalist, Criminal Minds, and Level Up. He starred in the television show produced by basketball star Lebron James called Survivor's Remorse, a story about a professional basketball player who moves his family to Atlanta after going pro. Independence Day 2 is probably his biggest role to date.

Hemsworth is reportedly playing the son-in-law of former U.S. President Thomas J. Whitmore, which was played by actor Bill Pullman in the first film. The actor is said to make an appearance playing the same character in the sequel.

Goldblum will be reprising his role as computer whiz David Levinson while the original film's lead character, Captain Steven Hiller played by Will Smith will not be back for the sequel.

Independence Day 2 will be set 20 years after the original movie. The world has seen quite an improvement and has managed to repair itself after the alien invasion and even benefitted from the technology left behind by the aliens. However, little do the human race know that the extraterrestrials managed to send a distress signal before they were completely destroyed, and now their backup is finally coming.

The first film had humans worried about an alien invasion. Not only were humans outnumbered, but they were also beat as far as superior technology is concerned. This time around, how will humans fare?

The sequel will boast of a new generation of human heroes, and Usher and Hemsworth are most definitely part of the group who will set to save the human race.

No other casting news have been revealed thus far, although producers are scrambling to find the right actors and actresses to be in the film since production will probably start within the next couple of months.

20th Century Fox has officially scheduled Independence Day 2 to hit theaters on June 24, 2016.