Director J.A. Bayona on building a “bigger” film with Jurassic World 2

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

While Colin Trevorrow's JURASSIC WORLD was a box-office success, fans of the series were very critical of the movie covering familiar territory. It looks like Spielberg and Co. are conscious of this and, in turn, are pushing the franchise in a new direction with director J.A. Bayona. Speaking of, Bayona had a few things to say about the sequel to The Playlist and I've included the highlights below!

Director J.A. Bayona on JURASSIC WORLD 2:

After doing THE IMPOSSIBLE and A MONSTER CALLS I said, ‘I want to have fun now.’ So, let’s do a dinosaur film with Spielberg. It’s great, but at the same time it’s massive and way bigger than [the last] one.

I think what is tricky about doing the fifth movie of a franchise is how will you bring in new stuff and still pay tribute to what we all know and the legacy of the film. So, it’s the balance between the new stuff and the old stuff. I think Colin did a great job in the first one finding the balance between what people are expecting and what people are being again. I was kind of surprised when he pitched me the story because it leads the story to a place that we’ve never seen before and it brings some of the most important elements from the other films and makes something with them. I thought that was very interesting. It’s the second chapter of a trilogy so it gets the story to a place that wants you leaving more and more.

There's no doubt that Bayona has proved his mettle with films like THE IMPOSSIBLE and A MONSTER CALLS, so his decision to take on JURASSIC WORLD 2 has me VERY excited. I certainly have no qualms with Trevorrow, but Bayona is a much more proficient director. If the story does indeed take the franchise to a different and compelling place, then maybe I can finally get excited about dinosaurs again!

JURASSIC WORLD 2 will open in theaters on June 22, 2018.