Things are coming along for ‘Independence Day 2‘ as two more veterans have been officially confirmed to star.

Director Roland Emmerich has announced on Twitter that Bill Pullman and Judd Hirsch will be reprising their roles for the sequel to ‘Independence Day.’ Pullman, you may recall, played Thomas J. Whitmore, the President of the United States, who gave a rousing speech to spur the fighters into victory against the aliens. Judd Hirsch played Julius Levinson, father of Jeff Goldblum’s character David.

While Pullman has long been rumored to be attached to ‘Independence 2,’ apparently he hadn’t signed on the dotted line until recently. Pullman and Hirsch will join returning cast members Brent Spiner, Jeff Goldblum and Vivica A. Fox, all who will be reprising their roles from the first film. Unfortunately, Will Smith has decided to pass on the project.

Rumor has it that ‘Independence Day 2’ will be set 20 years after the original film with the planet again under attack as aliens return to seek vengeance due to the events that happened in the first film. To help carry on the fight will be Jessie Usher who will play Dylan Dubrow, the grown up son of Fox’s character, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Joey King in unidentified roles, and Liam Hemsworth who is rumored to be playing Whitmore’s son-in-law.

‘Independence Day 2’ has been in development for some time and has gone through some changes along the way. Originally set to be the second film in a proposed trilogy, the film will now be just a sequel who no third part. A saving grace is that both Emmerich (who also directed the first film) and Dean Devlin who wrote the script for ‘Independence Day’ and have also written the screenplay for ‘Independence Day 2.’ Some rework to the script has been done by James Vanderbilt (‘The Amazing Spider-Man’) and most recently Carter Blanchard.

Production is slated to begin in the next couple of months with a release date of June 24, 2016 – a week before the actually 20th anniversary of the original film’s release.