‘Independence Day 2’ will not have Will Smith, still set for 2016

Still set for the 20th anniversary of the first film, Independence Day 2 is still set to arrive theaters in 2016.

Deadline reports that the film will not have star Will Smith to battle aliens. “Smith informed the studio that he won’t be joining in on a sequel,” the article states, quoting an unnamed source.

In the fall of 2013 it was revealed that the studio had The Amazing Spider-Man scribe James Vanderbilt work on two separate scripts: one with Smith and one completely without the Men in Black star.

Director Roland Emmerich and co-writer and producer Dean Devlin are going to tackle earth-leveling aliens in theaters for July 4 weekend, 2016.

“A daily battle … The budget , theschedules, the actors … [but] It’s looking good,” Emmerich said in that same fall report.

Smith, who next stars with The Wolf Of Wall Street‘s Margot Robbie in the grifter tale Focus for Warner Bros, is also not expected to reprise his role as Jay in the next Men In Black, as Sony Pictures works on a reboot of that franchise.

Fox is set on a fourth of July release date, so 2016 is the tentative date for now.