The aliens may be back but film director Roland Emmerich says his new movie Independence Day: Resurgence is too different from the 1996 blockbuster sci-fi adventure to be considered a sequel.

Emmerich directed the original Independence Day, whose cast members Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman and Judd Hirsch return in this movie alongside new additions such as Liam Hemsworth.

It is rather a continuation than a sequel

“It is now 20 years since the world has been rebuilt and has tried to get prepared for a new attack; there is a new generation however, many of the old guard are back as well,” Emmerich told reporters about the film in Berlin.

“It is rather a continuation than a sequel because sequels you do after two or three years, and often it is not that different. I think this film is very different from the first.”

Independence Day: Resurgence hits cinemas worldwide from June 22.