Whether you’re a fan of the Jurassic World movies or not, it’s hard to argue that there’s never a bad time for dinosaurs. It’s for that very reason that I’m never not going to be excited about the announcement of a new addition to the Jurassic franchise, locusts and all.
The first Jurassic World Rebirth trailer kept things pretty vague, as it had to spend time introducing characters the audience has no real connection to yet. But, even with the limited details, we know that we’re getting some new dinosaurs alongside some old favorites (hello, dilophosaurus!), a new location, and a new crew of humans that may or may not be eaten by the aforementioned dinosaurs.
Let’s dive into what we know and what we don’t about the upcoming Jurassic World film.
Who Are Jurassic World Rebirth’s New Characters?
Let’s start with one that we can definitively answer, yeah?
First up we have Zora Bennett, played by Scarlett Johansson. Turns out Johansson is a huge Jurassic Park fan and has wanted to be involved in the franchise for some time. The actor told Vanity Fair that her opportunity finally came to be thanks to Black Widow reshoots taking place right next door to Jurassic World Dominion’s soundstage. After a meeting with Spielberg himself, Johansson was eventually cast as Zora who she ultimately helped writer David Koepp develop. With some fine-tuning and collaboration, Zora shifted from a straight-up mercenary to a more well-rounded adventurer with personal stakes in Rebirth’s quest for a cure for heart disease.
Next we have Jonathan Bailey’s Dr. Henry Loomis who, to the chagrin of some fans online, is not a grown up Tim from the first Jurassic Park. That said, Henry does, in fact, have ties to the one and only Dr. Alan Grant. We don’t know those details just yet, but I am enthusiastic for any opportunity the film is willing to take to tie back to Sam Neill’s beloved character. Henry may not have the combat readiness of his two counterparts, but he makes up for it in smarts, a good heart, and a genuine reverence for dinosaurs.
The final addition to the new Jurassic World trio is Mahershala Ali himself as Duncan Kincaid. The trailer shows us a good-natured navigator, but Ali implies to Vanity Fair that there’s a hardness to Duncan that will be present in the film as well — one that’s shared between he, Zara and even Henry. As evident in the trailer, Duncan is a longtime friend of Zora. Hopefully this won’t be their last covert adventure together!
Will Any of the Original Jurassic Park Characters Return?
One of the joys of Jurassic World Dominion was the return of Sam Neill’s Alan Grant and Laura Dern’s Ellie Sattler. (We were also happy to see Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm, of course, but he’d been around more frequently.) Unfortunately, the answer here is a very definitive “we don’t know but probably not.”
There are plenty of ways for any member of the original three to come into play as cameos before or after Zora, Henry and Duncan make it off of the island, but it seems unlikely that they’ll play any kind of meaningful role beyond “don’t go on the danger island, morons.”
What Is the Scene from Crichton’s Jurassic Park Novel They’ve Been Hinting At?
This is another question we got answered thanks to the Vanity Fair interview, and we see a brief moment of it in the trailer as well.
In Crichton’s Jurassic Park novel, Dr. Alan Grant and the two kids try to sneak past a sleeping T-Rex in nothing but a rubber raft. This obviously goes awry, resulting in Grant and the kids swimming for their lives thinking that the T-Rex can’t swim once the water gets deep enough. But the water never does. The T-Rex’s nostrils are high enough in its head that it can float toward them like the scariest, largest crocodile ever seen (move over, Lake Placid) as the giant reptile simply walks towards them instead of attempting to use its stubby arms to swim.
It is, simply put, shit-your-pants terrifying in the novel. Writer David Koepp has wanted to use it since the first Jurassic Park and, given the additional layers he’ll have to play with in a visual medium, this is easily my most anticipated scene of the film.
Which of the Five Deaths Are They On in Rebirth?
The ominous islands known as the Five Deaths — sometimes also called the Five Fates — have been shrouded in mystery for much of the Jurassic Park franchise with the notable exception of Isla Sorna (Site B), the largest of the Death Islands which appeared in both The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III. Isla Nublar, the most famous island which is now devoid of life after a tragic volcano eruption, is not one of the Deaths. It’s about 200 miles away. However, Nublar was made in the same InGen purchase from the Costa Rican government that included the Five Deaths in a 99-year lease.
So, this takes us to the key question: which of the Five Deaths does Jurassic World Rebirth take place on? The remaining islands include Isla Matanceros, Isla Muerta, Isla Pena and Isla Tacano. There’s also a slight possibility that they go the Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous route and take them off of the Deaths entirely after Isla Nublar’s destruction. But, my guess is actually Isla Tacano.
Tacano has only been explored in the video games thus far, but the history of the island, while sparse, notes two key details that could hint at this being Rebirth’s location. The first is that there was an attempt to build an operation on this island in the past, but the terrain was too rugged and made construction nearly impossible, with the second being the footnote that most Costa Rican fishermen fear the island despite a lack of any notable InGen operations. We see in the trailer that the terrain they’re dealing with is pretty dicey, with only one shot taking place in relatively small, grassed flatland, and Duncan makes it very clear no one else is trying to get to this island but them.
Where Did These Children Come From?
No one’s trying to get to this island but there are somehow kids on their boat? Obviously they’ll need a team to get in and out of whichever test facility they’re working through, but how did kids get involved?
These munchkins aren’t just on the boat, they also appear on the island as Zora, Duncan, Henry, and the rest of the field team rush to get to the boat. They are intercepted by a very large foot that appears to be attached to a very large but currently unknown dinosaur.
Kids of one kind or another have appeared in every Jurassic Park movie, but it remains my recommendation that we, uh, stop that practice. For my money, they haven’t been a worthwhile addition since Tim, Lex and Malcolm’s daughter Kelly. And, in a film that seems less about the wonder of exploring a new theme park and more about the extreme dangers of an unknown island, it doesn’t make any real sense for them to be around. Sure, they could stow away in the same way Kelly did in The Lost World but, given the Jurassic World half of the franchise’s struggle to introduce interesting characters, maybe we just skip this part?
Who Does Martin Krebs Work For?
From what we currently know of the film’s synopsis, the mission of Jurassic World Rebirth is largely a noble one. Zora, Henry and Duncan are on an expedition to source the D.N.A. from three of the world’s largest dinosaurs to cure heart disease according to producer Frank Marshall. Of course, the company that’s discovered this is the employer of Rupert Friend’s Martin Krebs. Look at that man in this trailer and tell me he doesn’t scream “I’m the bad guy!”
At the moment, it appears that Krebs simply showed up out of the blue and gathered a team with the notion that he could cure heart disease — the leading cause of death in the United States. But, as myself and many others have already pointed out, “we need the D.N.A. of the three largest dinosaurs on land, sea and air” is a nebulous and almost silly goal. That’s like a Pokemon side-quest or a Dora the Explorer-level adventure. Which takes us to the real question: which evil genetics corporation is chasing this D.N.A, and what do they really want it for.
The three key corporations at play in the Jurassic franchise are InGen (Hammond’s baby), Mantah Corp, and BioSyn. All of them suck for various reasons, but each represents the hubris of man and our absurd belief that we will always remain at the top of the food chain. InGen has most certainly had its time in the sun across the various film entries, Mantah Corp came into play in the animated Camp Cretaceous as a key competitor to InGen, and BioSyn is the rival corporation that convinced Denis Nedry to betray John Hammond in the first Jurassic Park film that also happened to responsible for much of the disaster in Jurassic World: Dominion.
Based on what we know about the three corporations, Biosyn does seem to be the most likely evil here, especially given their subsidiary PharmaSyn and the company’s “noble” effort to create refuge in a remote area of Italy to house the displaced dinosaurs of Isla Sorna and Isla Nublar. While the company is believed likely defunct after their responsibility for that whole locust pandemic, evil corporations have come back from worse. BioSyn’s pharmaceutical arm seems like an easy cover for Krebs given that all three of Rebirth’s leads seem to be rather savvy with varying ranges of high intellect. As for what BioSyn really wants with the dino D.N.A., we’ll just have to wait and see!
When Does Jurassic World Rebirth Take Place?
It’s been confirmed that Rebirth is about five years after the events of Dominion. This gives the franchise a little space from Owen Grady and Claire Dearing and, if the above theory is correct, gives BioSyn a little time to get out of whatever legal trouble they got in after unleashing a plague of locusts.
That said, it does appear that we’ll be getting a flashback of sorts. In the trailer, we see a man in a tank as another worker looks on in a hazmat-like suit. The worker on the outside looks on as the very large dinosaur looms over his partner, unable to open the door lest they both become lunch. We see a fraction of an InGen logo, confirming this as the original test site and not some off-island location, but what we don’t know is what the suits are for. Previously, much of the experimentation on these creatures had been solely genetic. Are we to take this as a sign that there were more harmful and dangerous experiments taking place prior to Dr. Henry Wu perfecting the hybridization process?
Which Dinosaurs Will We See?
Let’s be real, we’re all here for the dinosaurs. While we don’t know anything meaningful about the failed experiments of InGen’s first test site, we do get a glimpse of a few fun mutations in the trailer. In addition to the play on brachiosaurus and the new and very large flying dinosaur, we know that we’ll be getting a T-rex, mosasaurus, dilophosaurus and, of course, velociraptors.
We also know that they’re looking for the biggest dinosaurs on land, air and sea. Scientifically speaking, those accolades go to the titanosaur — a long-necked herbivore that is basically Little Foot on steroids — on land, shastasaurus on sea (sorry mosasaurus and megalodons) and the quetzalcoatlus in the air.
Of course, the Jurassic franchise is noteworthy for how much it likes to play with the size and shape of its creatures. Velociraptors are actually ridiculous looking and much smaller than how they’re presented, but that’s way less fun than the creature that fed many of our nightmares growing up. So, while the titanosaur, shastasaurus and quetzalcoatlus are the biggest lizards we know of from a scientific perspective, there is still plenty of room for Jurassic World Rebirth to introduce us to a brand new monster of our dreams. Besides, how many folks do you think are going to learn to pronounce quetzalcoatlus?
