Independence Day 2: Charlotte Gainsbourg to join Jeff Goldblum and Liam Hemsworth

The film will be the first US blockbuster for the Anglo-French actress

Anglo-French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg (Getty Images)

Charlotte Gainsbourg has been cast in the upcoming Hollywood science-fiction sequel Independence Day 2.

The Melancholia actress and Lars von Trier regular will face another apocalypse in Roland Emmerich’s overdue follow up to the alien-fighting classic—which made more than $800m worldwide.

The new film will resume the story told in July 1996, when an extra-terrestrial threat to humanity was averted. James A Woods and Nicolas Wright have already written a draft for the screenplay.

While Gainsbourg will play an unspecified role, the actress joins original cast-member Jeff Goldblum with new arrivals Liam Hemsworth and Jessie Usher on set.

Will Smith is not expected to reprise his role as US Marine fighter pilot Captain Steven Hiller, though the first film ushered in Smith’s 18-year reign as a box-office powerhouse.

A two-time César-winner, Gainsbourg was born in London and raised in Paris. The bilingual actress is the daughter of celebrated French singer Serge Gainsbourg and English actor and singer Jane Birkin.

Gainsburg’s most recent film, Oppenheimer Strategies, is a political thriller starring Richard Gere and Michael Sheen. Her other credits include The Science of Sleep and I'm Not There.

Independence Day 2 is slated to hit cinemas on 24 June 2016 in honour of the franchise’s 20th anniversary.