Is it because no one really wanted a sequel at first or something??
shareProbably the cast and crew wanting to move on to other things and having other projects occupying their time. Will Smith became huge in the later 90s after this and was in one big movie after another, likely making him unavailable and thus putting this on the backburner many times.
shareEmmerich didn't want to do it in the last decade because he was worried a positive portrayal of the president might be interpreted as support for George Bush.
Plus the first was made in a time when sequels weren't quite as common as they are now.
Whats wrong with waiting? Given the vast distances, they wouldn't be retaliating right away, so 20 years makes more sense. They probably also had other projects to work on.
shareThere many I'm sure, but I think it was considered a great standalone film that should have stayed that way
shareA script for a sequel was written back in the 90s but the guy who wrote it actually gave the money he was paid for it back, because he didn't think it was good enough.
But he was okay with the script we got now?
Makes you wonder how bad the original script was.
Sequel came at least 10 years too late and it looks line no one who was involved really cared. The whole thing just looks like a big, dumb, lazy cashgrab.
shareNot much of a cash grab considering it lost about 65 million dollars at the box office; haha. This sequel was absolutely terrible. The first movie was classic Americana, one of the biggest and most famous summer blockbusters of all time. Without will smith and with the rest of the cast way past their relevance, this movie shouldn't have even shared the same name.
shareYou have to be pretty stupid to think that making back double your budget at the domestic box office alone is a $65 million loss.
shareTwo words - Tom. Rothman. He chased off Devlin and Emmerich from doing a sequel not long after the original made so much money, and as the prospect seemed to be on hold as years went on the two went on to other things and what was trendy kept changing to create a reasonable story concept. Even so, yeah its pretty ridiculous a sequel didn't get made within that span of time.
shareTook 20 years because smarted people prevailed in saying no. Then the lunatics took over the asylum and greenlit this sorry excuse for a movie.