Update: Roland Emmerich has since confirmed to Movies.com that both Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum will return for the sequel.

It’s been a few years now since we’ve had anything solid to report on the proposed sequel(s) to Roland Emmerich’s 1996 smash hit Independence Day. Back in 2011, there was a report that they were actually planning two sequels, loosely titled ID Forever Part 1 and ID Forever Part 2, that would shoot back-to-back. At the time, it was also said that they were preparing to continue the franchise without Will Smith, who did not seem to have any interest in returning. Now that Emmerich’s latest film White House Down is about to hit theatres, Fox has suddenly set a release date for a movie titled simply Independence Day 2. But does this mean the movie is finally happening or are they merely reserving the date just in case?

According to Box Office Mojo, 20th Century Fox issued a handful of release date changes last week that included swapping X-Men: Days of Future Past and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (they will now hit theatres on May 23rd, 2014 and July 18th, 2014 respectively). Also among these changes was a July 3rd, 2015 release date for Independence Day 2, the first time it has ever officially been added to their upcoming line-up. The release date will obviously be a key component of the marketing for an ID4 sequel, which explains their need to save the date early. Still, it does seem strange that they haven’t officially announced that the movie is happening.

It’s possible that they are still negotiating behind the scenes to try and get Will Smith involved. You would think that after the failure of After Earth, he would be more open to it, but Roland Emmerich recently told the New York Daily News that is not the case:

“Will Smith can not come back because he’s too expensive, but he’d also be too much of a marquee name. It would be too much… We have like maybe half of the people that you know would know from the first film (in the script) and the other half people who are new.”

Bill Pullman previously hinted that he would be returning for the sequel(s). Other than that, the only thing we know is that James Vanderbilt (Zodiac, White House Down) is supposedly doing a rewrite on the script right now. Are you interested in an Independence Day sequel even if it doesn’t involve Will Smith?