Fans of the quite crazy Brent Spiner (‘Star Trek: The Next Generation,”Warehouse 13‘) from ‘Independence Day’ will be thrilled to hear that he is returning for the sequel! Not only that but we have further casting news to share with you as Joey King (‘The Conjuring,”Oz the Great and Powerful’) has officially joined the cast of ‘Independence Day 2‘ as well! Things are finally starting to take shape on the rather long gestating film and I’m starting to really wonder how we’re going to be handling a new alien menace twenty years after the first one.

Director Roland Emmerich took to Twitter to deliver the good news on these new casting developments.

— Roland Emmerich (@rolandemmerich) April 9, 2015

At this time we have no news on who King will be playing though bringing Spiner back is a very interesting choice. For those of you who don’t remember, he played the all too in touch with aliens Dr. Okun appeared to die in the first film. His return could mean anything from flashbacks to watching recorded data entries that he recorded while alive to actually having just been close to death but never kicking the bucket. Honestly as much as I’d love to see him back I really feel that it could be a stretch to have him return without a truly plausible reason. If his character is alive in the film I hope that it is something they address right off the bat and don’t leave it up in the air and unexplained.

Spiner will be joining returning actors Jeff Goldblumm, Vivica A. Fox, and newcomers Jessie Usher and Liam Hemsworth. As I’m sure everyone is well aware by now Will Smith is not set to return and reprise the role that shot him into stardom.

Are you glad to hear that Spiner will be returning in the sequel? Do you think that he’ll be among the living when the movie starts or just in some kind of call back to his previous work? Share your thoughts below!