Universal Pictures surprised us back in January when they announced that not only was a new entry in the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchise in the works, but the screenplay was already finished and the project was aiming for a 2025 theatrical release. July 2, 2025, to be exact. This new movie is called Jurassic World Rebirth, and it was assembled in a mad scramble so it can stay on track to reach theatres next July. Details have been kept under wraps so far, but Universal just revealed some plot and character information the other day, so now it’s time for us to put together a list of Everything We Know About Jurassic World Rebirth:
One of the most interesting things about this new Jurassic movie is the fact that it boasts a script written by original Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp, returning to the franchise for the first time since The Lost World: Jurassic Park. After sitting out the last four movies, Koepp has come back to tell the following story: Five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, the planet’s ecology has proven largely inhospitable to dinosaurs. Those remaining exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling the one in which they once thrived. The three most colossal creatures within that tropical biosphere hold the key to a drug that will bring miraculous life-saving benefits to humankind. This action-packed new chapter in the franchise sees an intrepid team racing to secure DNA samples from the three most colossal creatures across land, sea and air.
To make sure they get the dinosaur action just right, the studio has hired paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Steve Brusatte to be the dinosaur expert consultant on the film. That’s a job Brusatte also had on the previous movie, where he was consultant alongside paleontologist Jack Horner, who has been a consultant on all six Jurassic movies to date. It’s not clear if Horner is back for this one, or if he has fully passed the torch to Brusatte.
Speaking on The Discourse podcast, Koepp said, “I hope people like the movie because the series tended to change after three, and it felt like, ‘Okay, so let’s change our tone.’ Steven [Spielberg] and I were interested in a tone that was maybe more akin to the very first movie. I saw it early on as a mission movie. I like things that are driven by bottles, by containment, you know? And so, developing a limited team and a thing that they have to accomplish – that was all really fun. And it was just fun to return to that world of great adventure backed by real science and write some cool new characters. You don’t often get a chance to have a blank slate and say, ‘What do you want to do?’ There were no franchise expectations other than dinosaurs.“
The two biggest franchises at Universal are the Jurassic movies and the Fast & Furious series – so it makes sense that when the studio needed to get a director attached to Jurassic World Rebirth as quickly as possible, they first turned to a filmmaker with Fast & Furious experience: David Leitch, who directed the Fast & Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw for them. Leitch also worked with Universal on The Fall Guy, which was about to be released when they started talking to him about making their latest dinosaur movie. But the deal was only in the “early negotiations” phase when Leitch and Universal came to realize they had different ideas about the direction of the project. So Leitch stepped away and less than two weeks later Universal found a different director who has experience with both blockbusters and giant creatures: Gareth Edwards, the director of Monsters, Godzilla, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and The Creator.
Edwards signed on at the end of February, with filming set to begin at the start of June.
Edwards told Empire, “It goes back to what I loved about the original, with an embarrassment of riches of different set-piece-type scenarios and tense, fun action moments. There were a lot of opportunities as a filmmaker to have a lot of fun and try and play games with the audience.” The movie will be packed with the dinosaurs movie-goers are hoping to see, as “there are certain dinosaurs it would be a crime against cinema not to include.”
This new Jurassic World movie won’t be featuring any returning lead characters from the previous Jurassic Park / Jurassic World movies. The characters played by Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, and Laura Dern are out, as are the ones played by Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. But this project didn’t have time for an extended casting process, so Edwards and Universal started reaching out to known names and making them offers. Colman Domingo (Fear the Walking Dead) and Dev Patel (Monkey Man) were said to be on the wish list at one point, but they didn’t end up being cast. Glen Powell (Twisters) was offered a role, but turned it down, saying, “Jurassic is one of my favorite movies. It’s one of the things I’ve wanted to do my whole life. I’m not doing that movie because I read the script and I immediately was like, my presence in this movie doesn’t help it. And the script’s great. The movie’s going to kill. It’s not about that. It’s about choosing where you’re going to make an audience happy and where you’re going to make yourself happy.“
Actors who did accept offers include Scarlett Johansson (The Avengers), Mahershala Ali (Green Book), Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton), Rupert Friend (Obi-Wan Kenobi), and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (The Lincoln Lawyer). Luna Blaise (Manifest), on the other hand, did have to (according to Deadline) “beat out a number of actors” to land her role. David Iacono of The Summer I Turned Pretty, child actress Audrina Miranda, Philippine Velge (Station Eleven), Béchir Sylvain (Diarra from Detroit), and Ed Skrein (Deadpool) are also in the cast.
Speaking to Variety, Johansson said she took the job because, “I am an enormous Jurassic Park fan. It is one of the first movies I remember seeing in theaters. I remember it so vividly. It was life-changing and mind-blowing. I cannot express how excited I am. The script is so incredible. David Koepp wrote it and returned after 30 years to write it and he’s so passionate about it. I’ve been trying to get into this franchise in any possible way for over 10 years. I’m like, ‘I’ll die in the first five minutes! I can get eaten by whatever! I’ll do the craft service!’ I’ll do anything for it. The fact that it’s happened in this way at this time just is actually unbelievable.” Bailey told V Magazine, “I’m on a really long holiday in the jungle, pretending to run away from fake dinosaurs… Um, no, I’m filming Jurassic Park. I can say that it’s written by David Koepp, who wrote the original. It feels like it’s in ultimate hands to bring it back to what the original achieved. (Jurassic Park) was the first film I went to see with my whole family, and I was way too young, I was terrified.“
Jurassic franchise veteran Jeff Goldblum, who worked with Johansson on Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, gave her this piece of advice: “Don’t get eaten, unless you want to. I love you.“
The director took the opportunity to build up Johansson’s character while talking to Empire, saying, “She’s looking for meaning in her life after leaving the military, and this opportunity comes along where [after it] basically she’d never have to work again. But through that journey, she starts to question the ethical rights and wrongs of what they’re doing.“
A press release sent out by Universal revealed that Johansson plays “skilled covert operations expert Zora Bennett, contracted to lead a skilled team on a top-secret mission to secure genetic material from the world’s three most massive dinosaurs. When Zora’s operation intersects with a civilian family whose boating expedition was capsized by marauding aquatic dinos, they all find themselves stranded on an island where they come face-to-face with a sinister, shocking discovery that’s been hidden from the world for decades.”
Ali’s character is Duncan Kincaid, Zora’s most trusted team leader. Bailey is playing paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis, with Friend as Big Pharma representative Martin Krebs and Garcia-Rulfo as Reuben Delgado, the father of the shipwrecked civilian family. Blaise, Iacono, and Miranda play Reuben’s family, with Velge, Sylvain, and Skrein playing members of Zora and Krebs’ crews.
Jurassic World Rebirth started filming in Thailand on June 13th and the production stayed there through July 16th, with locations including Bangkok, Trang, Phang Nga, Phuket, Chiang Mai and the Huai To Waterfall, which is within the Khao Phanom Bencha National Park in Krabi province. Filming at the waterfall is believed to have taken a full week. Outside of Thailand, the movie has been filming at studios in Malta and the U.K. Through equipment rentals, accommodation, venue hire, transportation, and catering services, the production was expected to bring $18 million of economic benefit to Thailand. It was also expected to seek local subsidy through Thailand’s 20% production spending rebate system. That system is open to international productions that spend more than $2.75 million in the country.
The film is being produced by Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley, both longtime Jurassic franchise producers. They also produced this summer’s blockbuster Twisters together. Steven Spielberg, Denis L. Stewart, and Jim Spencer serve as executive producers. At the end of September, Marshall took to Instagram to announce that production has wrapped:
The press release for this film opens with the line, “A new era is born.” It goes on to say that the movie will evolve the series “in an ingenious new direction.” We’ll get to see exactly what that direction is next summer.