"Independence Day" director Roland Emmerich says he was initially upset with Will Smith not signing up for the sequel.
The 60-year-old German filmmaker hopes that fans won't be discouraged by Smith's absence, reported ET online.
"It was disappointing in the beginning. But my friends convinced me I should keep going. I said, 'Maybe I just shouldn't do it. I have so many other projects I want to do.'
"And they said, 'You have to do it. This movie is much bigger, your ideas are much cooler and some people will miss Will, but then they'll forget about it,''' Emmerich recalls. "I hope they're right!," Emmerich said.
The sequel, which comes 20 years after the original movie, will have Jeff Goldblum, Vivica A Fox and Bill Pullman reprising their roles.
The 1996 blockbuster saw Washington, DC and New York City getting destroyed amid an alien invasion. However, the director said he shied away from showing major destruction in his films following the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.
"When 9/11 happened I said to myself, 'I will never ever destroy any building ever again.' Then when I had the idea for The Day After Tomorrow, I thought, 'Well, it warns people about global climate change so I could maybe do it.'
"But when you watch the movie, not one building falls. This huge wave comes in and there's not one building falling because I was so paranoid about people not wanting to watch that," he said.
"Independence Day: Resurgence" follows a new generation (led by Liam Hemsworth as fighter pilot Jake Morrison) as they battle the aliens.
The film will hit the theatres on June 24.
