Back when Will Smith was first considering the role of Deadshot in the summer blockbuster Suicide Squad, he had two scripts in front of him: one for the DC film, and the other for Independence Day: Resurgence. So when he opted for the role of Deadshot, it meant that he had to turn down reprising his role as Captain Steve Hiller in the Independence Day sequel. In a recent Facebook interview this week, the actor set the record straight on why he decided to go in a different direction.
"I had the two screenplays in front of me for the Independence Day 2 and for Suicide Squad. I had to choose between the two of those," Smith said before breaking down his decision-making process. "Even the choice of going to Suicide Squad—nothing about the qualities of the movie—but the choice of trying to go forward versus clinging and clawing backwards. I do want to aggressively go forward and do new things and create and hopefully be able to stumble upon a new heyday."
Subsequently, the Independence Day sequel wrote him out of the script, briefly mentioning that he had died in the line of duty. Director Roland Emmerich also addressed Smith's absence in the early stages of production, saying that the actor had told him that he couldn't do four sci-fi films in a row, as he was already locked into After Earth and Men in Black 3.
While "moving aggressively forward," as Smith would say, definitely seems like the right direction to be moving in, he doesn't always have a problem with revisiting the past. As it turns out, the actor has reportedly signed on to reprise his role opposite of Martin Lawrence as Mike Lowrey in a third and fourthBad Boys movie. The third installment, titled Bad Boys For Life, will reportedly debut on Jan. 20, 2018, while the fourth film, Bad Boys 4 is scheduled for May 24, 2019.
Smith previously attributed his decision to rejoin the Bad Boys cast to a brief reunion he had with Martin Lawrence after two years of not seeing each other. "I saw Martin a few weeks ago. And I hadn’t seen him for about two years," Smith recalled on BBC's 1Xtra. "And we just looked at each other. And we hugged. And in that moment, we both knew we were making another Bad Boys. So, we’re definitely doing another one." So it seems there maybe some exceptions to the rule on reprising old roles.
