--- title: Independence Day 2: Maika Monroe From 'It Follows' to Star description: Maika Monroe of "It Follows" nabbed the female lead canonical: https://time.com/3838036/maika-monroe-independence-day-2/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-28T14:45:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T06:44:23.990Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Meet the Indie Scream Queen Starring in "Independence Day 2" og:description: Maika Monroe of "It Follows" nabbed the female lead og:url: https://time.com/3838036/maika-monroe-independence-day-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt46164c0461f7446e/6987ed2e3c16399c09455b97/it-follows.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: "It Follows" Premiere - 2015 Sundance Film Festival og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet the Indie Scream Queen Starring in "Independence Day 2" twitter:description: Maika Monroe of "It Follows" nabbed the female lead twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt46164c0461f7446e/6987ed2e3c16399c09455b97/it-follows.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Meet the Indie Scream Queen Starring in _Independence Day 2_ by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Apr 28, 2015 2:45 PM CUT  Actress Maika Monroe arrives at the "It Follows" premiere during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2015 in Park City, Utah. Actress Maika Monroe arrives at the "It Follows" premiere during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2015 in Park City, Utah.Chelsea Lauren—Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Apr 28, 2015 2:45 PM CUT The _Independence Day_ sequel already has a star-studded cast: Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch and Bill Pullman will reprise their roles from the ’90s classic, and Charlotte Gainsbourg and Liam Hemsworth have signed on. But the actress who has joined as the female lead is a less familiar name to mainstream audiences: Maika Monroe, the 21-year-old actress whose biggest credits to date have been _The Guest_ and _It Follows_. Monroe’s first two big roles marked her as a scream queen—and while _Independence Day 2_ won’t exactly be a horror film, it’s a safe bet that her character _will_ be narrowly escaping danger quite a bit, and she’s skilled at that. Monroe will play the president’s daughter, with Pullman playing her dad and Hemsworth playing her love interest. The competition for the role was fierce, according to the [_Hollywood Reporter_](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/follows-star-joins-independence-day-791845 "undefined"), with Monroe beating out a handful of other up-and-coming actresses in a lengthy audition process. If it seems surprising to cast a relative unknown as the female lead of a major film, consider this: Monroe’s acting chops and unique style were certainly part of launching _It Follows_ from a first-weekend release in four theaters to a third-weekend showing in [more than 1,200](http://deadline.com/2015/04/it-follows-maika-monroe-horror-box-office-radius-twc-dimension-distribution-plan-1201403588/ "undefined"). If she can bring that magic to a much bigger-budget film, director Roland Emmerich will be very glad he cast her. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3838036/maika-monroe-independence-day-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3838036/maika-monroe-independence-day-2/"},"headline":"Meet the Indie Scream Queen Starring in Independence Day 2","datePublished":"2015-04-28T14:45:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T06:44:23.990Z","description":"Maika Monroe of It Follows nabbed the female lead","url":"https://time.com/3838036/maika-monroe-independence-day-2/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt46164c0461f7446e/6987ed2e3c16399c09455b97/it-follows.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt46164c0461f7446e/6987ed2e3c16399c09455b97/it-follows.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"It Follows\" Premiere - 2015 Sundance Film Festival","caption":"\"It Follows\" Premiere - 2015 Sundance Film Festival","creditText":"Chelsea Lauren—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3838036/maika-monroe-independence-day-2/","name":"Meet the Indie Scream Queen Starring in Independence Day 2"}}]}] ```