Independence Day 2 & 3 are sequel ideas that never die, with director Roland Emmerich and star Will Smith often hinting that they’re still in the works, but it’s only been recently that there’s seemed to be real impetus behind the idea – even though they’re still a fair way off – with the titles ID Forever Part One and ID Forever Part Two recently revealed.

Now Emmerich has given some info about the proposed plots of the sequels, which suggest they may be hoping to get Independence Day 2 in cinemas in three years time, exactly two decades after the first film. The filmmaker revealed to EW that the follow-up’s story is set 20 years after the first movie, centring on a distress call that was made by the first wave of aliens in Independence Day.

He says, “The humans knew that one day the aliens would come back. And they know that the only way you can really travel in space is through wormholes. So for the aliens, it could take two or three weeks, but for us that’s 20 or 25 years.”

Roland Emmerich wrote the screenplays for both ID Forever – Part 1 and ID Forever – Part 2, but now he’s handed them over to his White House Down writer, James Vanderbilt, to do a rewrite.

The director also said that the humans have embraced the alien technology in the years following the initial attack. “It’s a changed world. It’s like parallel history,” he says. “[Humans] have harnessed all this alien technology. We don’t know how to duplicate it because it’s organically-grown technology, but we know how to take an antigravity device and put it in a human airplane.”

Independence Day star Bill Pullman is on board for both movies, although Will Smith has not been confirmed quite yet. The filmmaker revealed this story will focus on a new generation of heroes, including the stepson of Will Smith’s character, played by Ross Bagley in the original. “It’s still some of the same characters, but also new younger characters; it’s a little bit like the sons take over. The first one ends on a little success, but only enough to give the humans hope. And then in the second one they free themselves again [from the aliens].”

A 3D version of the original Independence Day Is due in cinemas this summer, and if that’s a success, it’ll certainly give more impetus to the sequels.