Twenty years after a united force fought for Earth’s freedom from alien oppressors, 20th Century Fox is finally unleashing the ID4 sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence, into theaters. Originally planned for back-to-back filming with Independence Day 3, the studio elected to have director Roland Emmerich focus on one installment at a time – while, no doubt, wanting to assess how much interest moviegoers actually have in an ID4 follow-up (especially one without Will Smith returning as Captain Steven Hiller).
Still, even without Smith onboard, response to the first Resurgence trailer was strong – indicating that, two decades later, fans are still eager to explore Earth’s fate after the tentacled biosuit-wearing extraterrestrials attempted an invasion. The trailer was a good starting point for the film’s marketing, and a surprise to many casual filmgoers who were unaware that 20th Century Fox was planning a ID4 revival. However, the teaser also leaned heavily on nostalgia (and special effects) to generate buzz – meaning that future trailers will need to do more than play audio of former President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman) as bigger alien ships break through the atmosphere.
Fortunately, as part of the Super Bowl 50 festivities, Fox released the movie’s second teaser (which you can view at the top of the page) – and, where the first trailer set the stage with ominous shots of the cast (both new and returning) as well as glimpses at human-alien hybrid tech, the latest preview spends a bit more time teasing where the franchise may be headed now.
The latest trailer still spends the majority of its runtime introducing moviegoers to the core concept: David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), now Director of Earth Space Defense, has spent the last twenty years preparing for the aliens to return – and now those aliens have: bigger, angrier, and in greater numbers. Nevertheless, the Super Bowl spot also features plenty of new faces and apocalyptic destruction to whet fan appetites.
ID4 action was almost exclusive to aerial battles, which also return in Resurgence, will fans finally get to see the alien invaders in action on the ground as well (though 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow set a pretty high bar for human versus tentacled-alien action scenes)?
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Independence Day: Resurgence will open in theaters everywhere on June 24, 2016.
