9 Insulting Ways Characters Were Killed Off Between Movies

1. Steven Hiller Gets Blown Up Because Will Smith Bailed - Independence Day: Resurgence

One of the many modern day soft-reboots that completely forgets why people loved the original in the first place, Independence Day: Resurgence completely pushes the cast of the first movie to the side in favour of a far blander, younger generation of heroes designed to attract a whole new audience. One of these wet blankets is the son of Will Smith's Steve Hiller, who sadly didn't return for the sequel.

Though the producers and director Roland Emmerich apparently wanted Will Smith back, he had to choose between the Independence Day sequel and Suicide Squad. In fairness, that's kind of a no-win scenario, but ultimately he went to work on the DC film, and as a result, the writers killed him off. Not only did they kill him off, but they did it in the lamest way ever - having Hiller die in a random explosion after some alien tech he's working on malfunctions, which is reported on the news.

It might not have totally been out of spite because he rejected the role, but the fact that he did receive the script for the sequel suggests he originally had a pretty major part, which wasn't only cut out when he said no, but was changed so that his character was outright dead.