Vivica A. Fox Talks Will Smith's Absence in 'Independence Day 2' - Here's Why He Wasn't In It

Vivica A. Fox was feeling Will Smith‘s absence in the sequel to their 1996 hit movie Independence Day, and she thinks everyone else was, too.

The actress looked back on 2016′s Independence Day: Resurgence, which underperformed in comparison to the original.

She attributed part of the shortcoming to Will not being in the movie. If you forgot or were previously unaware, we did some digging to figure out why he wasn’t brought back.

Read more about Will Smith’s absence in Independence Day: Resurgence…

Speaking with A.V. Club, Vivica explained that the sequel “didn’t live up to the first one.”

“I really feel we missed out by not bringing Will Smith back,” she opined. “We had most of the original cast, but I think the one true link that was missing to the success of Independence Day 2 was that Will Smith wasn’t there.”

She continued, adding, “I’m going to keep it real — I was at the premiere and I was like ‘Mmm, let’s see how the fans are going to feel about this.’ And sure enough on Twitter, they blew me up.”

Why didn’t Will come back? According to Variety, there was a dispute over his salary that resulted in his character getting an offscreen death.

If you missed it, there was a recent report that Will shot down a celebrity cameo on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Any guesses on who he allegedly didn’t want on the show?