The entirety of the Jurassic Park franchise has earned over $6 billion dollars at the box office. Six. Billion. Dollars. The Michael Crichton novel about nature being too chaotic to control made a meteoric impact on pop culture, and even science itself, after the first movie’s revolutionary plot and special effects made people believe they were watching dinosaurs on the big screen.
The latest installment of the dinosaur adventure series came just this year with the conclusion Jurassic World: Dominion. Empire sat down with Colin Trevorrow as the writer/director addressed the issue of the most recent film pivoting its focus away from the dinosaurs to a different conflict altogether. One big criticism the movie faced was that it was more about genetically modified locusts than a society overrun by prehistoric beasts.
Trevorrow admitted it was done as he feels the franchise is actually unfranchisable,
I specifically did something different than the other films in order to change the DNA of the franchise. The previous five films are plots about dinosaurs. This one is a story about characters in a world in which they coexist with dinosaurs. For the franchise to be able to move forward – because it’s inherently unfranchisable, there probably should have only been one Jurassic Park – but if we’re gonna do it, how can I allow them to tell stories in a world in which dinosaurs exist, as opposed to, here’s another reason why we’re going to an island?”
The novel the 1993 original was based on had its own sequel in book form before it was adapted into a film. Michael Crichton’s The Lost World would find one more reason to revisit an island full of dinosaurs as it was discovered there was a birthing island making the dinosaurs before transported to the park. Every sequel since has been based on original screenplays that tried to extend the concept.
Trevorrow feels his focus change could open up a new run of stories with characters he had established. “This movie clearly takes a real interest in creating new characters that a new generation is going to latch on to.” Trevorrow adds, “I never knew that this was the ending of the franchise until I saw the marketing. Those guys are brilliant at what they do, but for me, I think it might have been clearer if they’d said, ‘The end of an era,’ as opposed to all of it.”