J.A. Bayona on deepening the mythology with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

After close to fifteen years without a JURASSIC PARK film in our lives, the franchise came roaring back into existence with JURASSIC WORLD and made a bundle in the process. A sequel is now less than a month away, and JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM director J.A. Bayona is looking to give us a follow-up which is darker and more frightening, which is something I was missing from the Colin Trevorrow film. The director recently spoke with Fandango and spilled a few details about the upcoming film.

"For the first time, we return to the island not to rescue people from dinosaurs but to rescue the dinosaurs themselves from a volcano that is about to erupt for the second time," Bayona said. "The relationship that man now shares with the dinosaurs is more emotional and we establish a moral debate that I feel is very interesting – do we have to save the dinosaurs or let nature run its course and let them die?" The film seems to take a note from STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI, as Bayona added, "since the moment we blow up the island and the park is gone, there is a statement: forget the past, forget all of that you've seen, we're going to face the future. And the future that we show is something we've never seen before. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is brave and original and continues the mythology, but also expands to places and situations that we’ve never seen before." JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM will also contain more dinosaurs than any of the other films, including a handful of new ones we haven't yet seen, such as the Indorapter.

I think the audience is going to enjoy the Indoraptor. It's a terrifying creature involved in some of the best parts of the movie. I think we all remember some of the terrifying scenes we saw when watching Steven Spielberg's first Jurassic Park film, and the Indoraptor will take the audience to very similar, high tension moments.

J.A. Bayona teased that he doesn't believe audiences will expect the "gothic tone of the second half of the film," which he says resembles a "fairy tale, with its castle, princess and even a dragon. I think it's something the young ones will enjoy." The third film in the JURASSIC WORLD franchise is already in the works, which will see Colin Trevorrow returning to the director's seat, and Trevorrow has said that it will be closer in tone to Steven Spielberg's 1993 JURASSIC PARK than either JURASSIC WORLD or JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM. "If I could contextualize each film, I would say Jurassic World was an action adventure, Fallen Kingdom is kind of a horror suspense film, and Jurassic World 3 will be a science thriller in the same way that Jurassic Park was," Trevorrow said.

The official synopsis of JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM:

It’s been four years since theme park and luxury resort Jurassic World was destroyed by dinosaurs out of containment.  Isla Nublar now sits abandoned by humans while the surviving dinosaurs fend for themselves in the jungles.   When the island’s dormant volcano begins roaring to life, Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) mount a campaign to rescue the remaining dinosaurs from this extinction-level event.  Owen is driven to find Blue, his lead raptor who’s still missing in the wild, and Claire has grown a respect for these creatures she now makes her mission.  Arriving on the unstable island as lava begins raining down, their expedition uncovers a conspiracy that could return our entire planet to a perilous order not seen since prehistoric times.   With all of the wonder, adventure and thrills synonymous with one of the most popular and successful series in cinema history, this all-new motion-picture event sees the return of favorite characters and dinosaurs—along with new breeds more awe-inspiring and terrifying than ever before.

JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM will hit theaters on June 22, 2018.