Is Randy Quaid Enlisting for the 'Independence Day' Sequel?

The long-awaited Independence Day sequel won’t star Will Smith, but fret not, disaster-movie fans! One of Smith’s ID4 co-stars, famously AWOL character actor Randy Quaid, may now be flying back to the franchise.

On Monday, director Roland Emmerich tweeted a photo of Quaid as ID4’s vengeance-seeking farmer Russell Casse, an alien abductee who rams his plane into the bad guys’ mothership during the 1996 film’s climax, effectively saving the day — and presumably dying.

Related: Jeff Goldblum Says an ‘Independence Day’ Sequel Is in the Works

Perhaps Emmerich’s tweet indicates that Quaid’s character survived the journey up the enemy’s bowels. That would be surprising — but not as surprising as the 64-year-old actor making an appearance on the set of a Hollywood film.

The actor, who was at one time one of the industry’s go-to comic sidekicks (see his roles in Christmas Vacation and Kingpin), hasn’t made a movie since 2009’s little-seen comedy Balls Out with Sean William Scott. His inactivity hasn’t been due to any sort of relaxing retirement: Quaid and his wife, Evi, have been on the run since 2010, when they skipped out on several gigantic hotel bills and got into a whole mess of legal trouble.

The Quaids believe that a Hollywood-assassination cabal called The Star Whackers — which they allege killed off Heath Ledger and David Carradine — is trying to steal their money and murder them. Despite having an asylum request denied, they’ve been living in Canada, convinced that a shadowy force is intent on destroying them.

Hey, if aliens can come back to earth, maybe Randy Quaid can, too.