The Big Picture

• Independence Day: Resurgence expanded the universe with a new, larger alien invasion threat but fell short at the box office.
• A potential third film would have focused on an intergalactic alliance with diverse alien species fighting alongside humanity.
• The AI Sphere introduced in Resurgence would likely have sought revenge against the Harvesters, adding a new twist to the trilogy's storyline.

Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day: Resurgence, the 2016 sequel to 1996’s sci-fi alien invasion blockbuster Independence Day (also directed by Emmerich), sees a united humanity faced with their greatest danger yet: a new, even larger invasion of Earth than it faced in the original film. The alien race, referred to as Harvesters, seek to steal the Earth’s molten core as fuel, leaving Earth a lifeless husk in the process. Also visiting Earth is an advanced, extraterrestrial AI Sphere representing a consortium of extraterrestrial species who have fallen to the Harvesters, hoping humanity can join and lead their fight. On the human side of things, we see David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) and Dr. Brackish Okun (Brent Spiner) return, alongside new characters Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth), Patricia Whitmore (Maika Monroe), and Dylan Hiller (Jessie T. Usher), to unite against the alien foes. (Noticeably absent was Will Smith, who decided not to come back.) While the sequel did expand the Independence Day universe, it also underperformed at the box office, especially when compared to the original. The result nixed plans for a third franchise entry, despite Emmerich’s initial passion to complete the trilogy, and left a lot of further development potential hanging. But what would the threequel have been?

In a 2016 interview with Empire Online, Emmerich talked about the "intergalactic" elements he had planned for a third Independence Day, although he certainly stopped short of describing the whole screenplay. Between the direction that his comments suggest and the new storylines introduced in Resurgence, we can make some educated guesses as to the probable elements a third Independence Day film would have contained. There's little doubt the movie would have showcased an intergalactic war on the largest scale yet, along with a hearty combination of new and legacy elements. Alas, we're unlikely to ever see Independence Day 3 given that the famously sequel-avoidant director now admits he shouldn't have made Resurgence after Smith exited, but it's still worth extrapolating predictions about the sequel we might have seen.

Independence Day: Resurgence

'Independence Day 3' Would Have Showcased an Intergalactic Alliance and New Alien Weapons

Independence Day: Resurgence takes place 20 years after the extraterrestrial invasion seen in the original Independence Day. A unified humanity has spent two decades studying Harvester weapons and combining them with Earth technology. The result is an impressive hybridization of modern military tech with extraterrestrial weaponry, and that's before the Sphere comes with news of an interstellar resistance made up of various extraterrestrial species. In the interview with Empire, Emmerich explained that a third film would see human protagonists traveling the stars. "The next one will be an intergalactic journey,” Emmerich promised, clarifying that the story would be set "maybe a year or two later" rather than taking another multi-decade jump forward. The goal would be to branch forward from the characters of Independence Day: Resurgence, with Emmerich directly explaining, "I want to maintain this group of people, especially the young characters." Emmerich went on to note that he imagined "them now going in one of these ships they've rebuilt into a wormhole ... I think it'll be the classic of going into space but it has to be about Earth, and we have a really good idea for that."

This comment makes it pretty clear where the story would be heading. In Resurgence, the Sphere tells the human protagonists that its system holds "the key to superior technology," stored in "a hidden planet where I teach refugees from other fallen worlds how to build weapons" to defeat the Harvesters "once and for all." If our warriors are traveling through a wormhole, they're almost certainly heading to that planet, paying off the Sphere's invitation for humanity to join the alliance. In this scenario, audiences would be sure to see a variety of alien species fighting alongside humanity. What's more is that, given the film series already establishes that humanity builds extraterrestrial weaponry into existing military tactics and techniques, humanity would likely assemble a number of interesting new "hybrid" gadgets for the forthcoming interstellar conflict. When combined with the advanced intellect of the Sphere's AI, human ingenuity would most certainly be the key to channeling all these diverse forces into an effective common cause against the Harvesters.

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The AI Sphere Would Likely Get Revenge Against the Harvester Aliens

The original Independence Day notably saw a less technologically advanced human race succeed against the Harvesters when Captain Steven Hiller (Smith) pilots an extraterrestrial fighter into the alien mothership. Computer expert David Levinson (Goldblum) injects the extraterrestrial ship with a computer virus that disables alien defenses, giving humanity a chance to take their ship down. In light of this tradition, it's interesting that Resistance sees humanity visited by an extraterrestrial AI with an ax to grind against the Harvesters, rather than a biological member of the alien consortium. In Resurgence, the Sphere informs the human protagonists that it "shed our biological existence for a virtual one thousands of years ago" and is the sole survivor of a war against the Harvesters lasting "thousands of years." We have a franchise that started off with humanity using computers to take down the evil aliens, and now they're being recruited by a sentient computer with an axe to grind. Coincidence? Probably not.

Surely the alien rebels have limited numbers, given that the Harvesters are planet destroyers and that the Sphere still needs humanity's help despite having superior technology. We could assume it wants to put the human ingenuity that twice thwarted the Harvesters behind a potential array of advanced weapons, hoping that our species will be the one that can make a difference. Allowing the Sphere to get justice in the trilogy-capper would pull together threads from both films into a tight conclusion, and there's no doubt humanity would play a crucial role when things look bleakest.

We're unlikely to ever see Emmerich's planned finale to Independence Day saga. The director seems to have moved on, and the disappointing box-office returns for Resurgence all but guarantee a lack of studio support. At the same time, it's unfortunate to be left with an unfinished story, especially when you consider that the original Independence Day was one of the defining sci-fi films of its era. Although Resurgence introduced a number of new plot threads that audiences likely won't see resolution for, at least it's not hard to imagine, based on the information out there, what path the story would have taken moving forward.

Independence Day: Resurgence is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.

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