The cast for Fox’s Independence Day 2 is coming together with the announcement that Jessie Usher has signed on for a role. Usher is the star of the Starz series Survivor’s Remorse, which is created by and executive produced by Mike O’Malley and executive produced by LeBron James, and has also starred in When the Game Stands Tall and the TV series Level Up.

The actor will play the son of Will Smith’s character in the original 1996 blockbuster, which was one of the movies to help Smith break out as a box office superstar. At the moment Smith is said to not be reprising his role as Captain Steven Hiller, the military pilot who helped to take down the alien mothership nearly 20 years ago. Ross Bagley, who is a little over three years older than Usher is, played Smith’s son Dylan in the first movie.

Usher joins a cast that also features Liam Hemsworth (The Expendables 2, The Hunger Games series), who will play one of the lead roles, and returning star Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park, The Fly), whose character David Levinson helped Smith’s character to save the planet in the original. It’s been said that Bill Pullman, who played the president in Independence Day, would also be returning for the sequel, though that’s not yet confirmed.

Roland Emmerich directed the original, and will return to direct the sequel as well. Emmerich’s previous movies include Universal Soldier, Stargate, Godzilla, The Patriot, The Day After Tomorrow, 10,000 BC, 2012, Anonymous, and White House Down. Carter Blanchard wrote the screenplay.

After his return to Independence Day, Emmerich wants to return another one of his successful previous movies, Stargate. The director said back in September of 2013 that he wanted to reboot the 1994 movie, which starred Kurt Russell and James Spader and spawned multiple TV series, books, video games, comics, and direct-to-video movies.

[Source: Heat Vision]