Will Smith has officially declined to reprise his role in the sequel of Independence Day, according to a Deadline report.

There had been a lot of speculation surrounding Smith's involvement in the project. Late last year there were reports stating that the actor who had initially turned down the part was reconsidering his decision.

Roland Emmerich, who will be directing both the sequels, Independence Day Forever Part 1 and Part 2, kept fans lingering with anticipation in September last year when he teased the possibility of Smith coming on board.

"I sometimes say no, Will Smith will not be in it because he didn't want to do it at first. Now we have a meeting planned, we want to talk about it again. Anything can happen," Emmerich said in an interview with Digital Spy.

The director was backtracking on a statement he made in June last year when interviewed by New York Daily, revealing that Smith -- who played the role of Captain Hiller in the original -- would not be joining the cast for the sequels.

"Will Smith can not come back because he's too expensive, but he'd also be too much of a marquee name," said Emmerich. "It would be too much."

In another June, 2013 interview with Digital Spy, Smith had also stated that he was not interested in doing blockbuster films anymore. "I think I'm going to start moving out of that and finding more danger in my artistic choices," Smith said.

After Emmerich suggested that Smith might be coming on board in September last year, he went on to reveal -- in an interview with Indiewire--that two scripts were being penned for the film, one of which was being written keeping Smith in mind for the starring role.

It has been confirmed that Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum will be reprising their roles in the film. Screenwriter James Vanderbilt (The Amazing Spider-Man, Zodiac) is working on the original script by Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin.

Independence Day Forever Part 1 will release in July 2015

Watch an interview with Emmerich about the sequels:

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