What Happened Next? - 9 Planned Movie Sequels That Were Cancelled
2. Independence Day 3
After waiting 20 years for a sequel to Independence Day, being greeted by Independence Day: Resurgence was a disappointment to say the least. But had it been good - and performed better - we would've seen another one (possibly even two), and director Roland Emmerich knew exactly what it would entail.
In a chat with Empire around the time of Resurgence's release, Emmerich opened up about ID3 and revealed that the story would feature human characters traveling into space: "The next one will be an intergalactic journey.”
He then stated that ID3 would be set in the not-too-distant future, a decision that was made so he could keep Resurgence's core cast - Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Brent Spiner, Jessie Usher and Maika Monroe - around for the adventure:
"It'll be [set] maybe a year or two later, not 20 years [on]. I want to maintain this group of people, especially the young characters, and Jeff [Goldblum] and Brent [Spiner] will take part in it. It'll be fun to keep that group together.”
Resurgence ended with the promise of space travel. In the film, the humans are contacted by a mysterious white sphere, who tells Goldblum and the gang about a hidden planet that can help them build weapons to combat the hostile aliens. Presumably, this is the plot thread Emmerich is referring to.
And since this is an Independence Day movie we're talking about, it's safe to assume all would have ended well for the human characters. But with Disney buying Fox - and Resurgence's poor reception taken into consideration - we'll never find out.