The sci-fi sequel Independence Day 2 has found its first cast member. THR reports that Jessie Usher will lead the pic as the son of Will Smith’s character from the 1996 film, which of course revolved around an alien invasion and the effort to thwart it, all the while the extra terrestrials’ massive ships hovered atop the major cities of the globe and Jeff Goldblum rode his bicycle round and round an office. Though Usher will play Smith’s son, Smith previously passed on returning for the follow-up, so it doesn’t appear that he’ll be popping up in this sequel. Usher’s filmography includes last year’s football drama When the Game Stands Tall and the Cartoon Network series Level Up, and he currently stars on the Lebron James-produced, basketball-centric Starz original series Survivor’s Remorse.

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Image via 20th Century Fox

Usher’s casting comes after over a year of casting rumors for the pic, which director Roland Emmerich has been developing for a while now. Michael B. Jordan was initially reported as being wanted for a major role in the pic, and the most recent rumor has Liam Hemsworth under consideration. Speaking of which, The Wrap now reports that Hemsworth is in final negotiations to join the film as the son-in-law of Bill Pullman's President, with Pullman expected to reprise his role. With a June 24, 2016 release date looming things are finally picking up, and casting Usher and Hemsworth is the first piece of the puzzle. I imagine more casting announcements will come in the next few weeks.

Story details are unknown at the moment, but Emmerich spoke pretty candidly about his plans a few years ago, when he was hoping to shoot two Independence Day sequels back-to-back. At that time, the filmmaker said the story of Independence Day 2 would find the aliens returning for retaliation, and due to wormhole travel it would only be a few weeks after the first film’s events in Alien Time, but 20-25 years would have passed in Human Time. Whether that story nugget remains in the finished film is unclear, but we’ll no doubt be in for some more massive destruction at the hands of Emmerich.

[Update: Emmerich took to Twitter and Facebook to confirm Usher and Hemsworth's casting and to announce that Jeff Goldblum will also be back.]

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/rolandemmerich/status/572935779774693377[/EMBED_TWITTER]