Seventeen years after the popular Will Smith film premiered, 20th Century Fox has confirmed that the long anticipated sequel to “Independence Day” is finally in the making.

After years of discussion for a sequel to the 1996 film, which grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide, fans will be treated to two movies.  “Independence Day Forever” will be have two parts, with “ID Forever Part One” expected to be released during the summer of 2015.

One big question for director Roland Emmerich was when the new story line would take place. “The humans knew that one day the aliens would come back…So for the aliens, it could take two or three weeks, but for us that’s 20 or 25 years,” Emmerich said. Now that it is established that the film will be taking place in present time, the other big question mark is which actors will return.

So far Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman have confirmed that they will be returning, but leading man Will Smith is out.  According to Emmerich, Smith is “too expensive” and “too much of a marquee name.”  While Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin will have a sizable budget to work with, they don’t want to spend most of it on one actor. While it is certainly disappointing that Captain Steven Hiller won’t return, the director hopes he will be able to get Smith in as a cameo.

As far as the other characters are concerned, according to Emmerich, “It’s still some of the same characters, but also new younger characters; it’s a little bit like the sons take over. The first one ends on a little success, but only enough to give the humans hope.” Emmerich expects to bring back half of the original cast and make the rest of the cast fresh faces.  So far there is no word on who will fill Smith’s shoes, but there is speculation that Smith’s stepson from the first film will be a main character. Emmerich also revealed that there will be a gay character in the film.

In case any fans are skeptical about there being two parts to the sequel, Devlin says that it isn’t all about money.  “We didn’t want to make a movie because it was financially a good idea, we only wanted to do it when we had an idea and a concept that creatively felt like it honored the first one,” the producer said.  Since Emmerich and Devlin have played around with the sequel for more than a decade, viewers will expect to be blown away when the film premieres.