Will Smith Is Sad as Hell About His Character's Death in 'Independence Day: Resurgence'

He says finding out his character had died was "terrible."

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

We've known for a while that Will Smith's character would not be returning to Independence Day: Resurgence. But what we did not know until last month was the reason, which is that Capt. Steve Hiller had died (RIP). His untimely death had something to with testing out some form of alien hybrid technology and was detailed on the website warof1996.com, which at least afforded us a little context.

This was of course a bummer to fans, but it's reportedly an even bigger downer to Will Smith. In an interview with Yahoo Movies, Smith sounds pretty salty about missing out on the project, which he claims in part came down to a scheduling conflict with Suicide Squad.

"I was working on Suicide Squad during that time," he said, referring to the film’s production. "[Independence Day director] Roland [Emmerich] and I had talked about it. The trailer looks really cool. I’m going to be sitting around with tears in my eyes when that one comes out… It was terrible when I found out my character died."

We hear you, man. But not all hope's lost—he may be waging a war on IRL alien Donald Trump in the near future, so we've still got that to hold on to.

Latest in Pop Culture