Director Roland Emmerich walks past the Russian White House during a photo call in Moscow
Director Roland Emmerich walks past the Russian White House during a photo call in Moscow July 3, 2013. Emmerich is visiting the Russian capital to promote his new film "White House Down". Reuters/Ivan Burnyashev

"Independence Day" sequel, which will not see the return of Will Smith to reprise his role as Captain Steven Hiller, has roped in the original director of the first movie to helm it. Roland Emmerich will be directing "Independence Day 2." Producer Dean Devlin recently confirmed that Emmerich is officially back to direct the much anticipated sequel.

Talking to Nerd Report, Devlin said "Roland is back to direct. He developed a new script with a couple of young writers and the new script is fantastic." The producer is excited about "Independence Day 2" .

Screen Rant reports that Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum are set to return for the sequel. Speaking about Smith's decision to not star in the movie, Emmerich said, "Will Smith can not come back because he's too expensive, but he'd also be too much of a marquee name." The movie will be set in an alternate present-day reality, where 20 years have passed since the original alien attack.

According to Nerd Report, Emmerich and Devlin had originally planned to film two more movies to make the franchise a trilogy. But, 20th Century Fox has approved the filming of only one movie. Devlin felt that it would be too much if they went forward with their intended two sequels and decided to focus on only one movie at a time. This would give them the opportunity to analyse the fans' reactions to "Independence Day 2." The producer hints that if the upcoming sequel draws positive reactions, they would most likely proceed with the third film. "Let's just make sure 20 years later that people still are interested. I think in our case, we started to feel that maybe we were being a little bit arrogant by assuming that we could do two movies," Devlin said.

The first movie "Independence Day," or "ID4," was released on June 25, 1996. At the time, it became one of the biggest box office hits of all time. The plot centered on mankind's struggle to fend off an invading alien force that threatened to wipe out the human race. The movie earned over $817 million worldwide and helped Smith enter Hollywood's big league.

"Independence Day 2" opens in theatres in 2015.