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Credit: Universal StudiosJurassic World Dominion has grossed just shy of $1 billion at the global box office. Despite being marketed as the last movie in the Jurassic Park/Jurassic World franchise, it’s hard to believe that Universal Pictures will ignore the movie’s financial success, even if it was torn apart by critics.
There are currently no plans for Jurassic World Dominion to be followed up, although producer Frank Marshall did previously allude to the possibility of there being future movies in the series. Either way, it would seem that the Jurassic franchise is, for the time being at least, done.
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Even animated show Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous (2020) has run its course, with its fifth and final season now streaming on Netflix. As to whether or not there will ever be a live-action Jurassic World TV series remains to be seen, but there’s a lot of potential in this area.
After all, Jurassic World Dominion has opened the doors to all kinds of possibilities. Dinosaurs now live among us, in the North American wilderness and beyond. There’s even an illegal dinosaur trade market, as seen in the latest blockbuster sequel.
Related: 7 Reasons Why A Future ‘Jurassic World’ Movie Probably Won’t Have Dinosaurs
But though the future of Jurassic Park/Jurassic World is uncertain, what about its past? Jurassic World Dominion is the end of the Jurassic World Trilogy, and the Jurassic Park Trilogy ended long ago with Jurassic Park III (2001). But what if there was another trilogy in the making?
It’s hard to believe that Jurassic World Dominion won’t be used as a stepping stone to push the franchise into new territory. Not only does it pave the way for future sequels, it also hints at a potential Jurassic Park/Jurassic World “prequel trilogy”.
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Move over Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Alien, and Harry Potter — we think it’s high time for the Jurassic Park/Jurassic World movies to get the prequel trilogy treatment, and Jurassic World Dominion just so happens to lay the foundations for such a series of installments.
In Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), we’re introduced to Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), the “granddaughter” of Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell) who is revealed to be the first human clone, a replica of her own mother who we’re told died in a car accident years before.
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However, Jurassic World Dominion adds a few more layers to this revelation, as Maisie learns that she is in fact her mother’s daughter, as Charlotte Lockwood (Isabella Sermon/Elva Trill) used her genetic engineering prowess to give birth “asexually”.
While Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong) is explaining all of this to Maisie at the Biosyn facility in Italy’s Dolomites, he shows her video diary footage of her mother working at Site B, known also as Isla Sorna, the island from both The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Jurassic Park III.
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We learn that Charlotte Lockwood worked with Wu on Site B, Jurassic Park‘s “factory floor”, where dinosaurs were created and raised, before being shipped off to Isla Nublar. At least before a hurricane devastated the facility and forced everyone to leave the dinosaurs to their own devices.
Charlotte Lockwood is referenced a number of times throughout the movie — Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) even tells Maisie that she became good friends with her, while Wu confesses that she was an even more “brilliant” scientist than he is (if he must say so himself).
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Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom also revealed from the get-go that Charlotte had visited Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar, so it’s fair to say that she was a prominent figure on both of InGen’s islands. And brilliant she was, as she was working towards developing a cure that ultimately took her life.
And Maisie is the beneficiary of Charlotte’s work, as she doesn’t have the disease that killed her mother. As such, Maisie is literal living proof that her mother was a genius and a compassionate scientist, who, unlike many others in the Jurassic universe, used her knowledge for good.
Related: 7 Signs InGen’s Theme Park Was Doomed to Fail
But while Jurassic World Dominion appears to tell us all we need to know about Charlotte, there remains a lot of unanswered questions about her. The closing shots of the latest sequel also show a young Charlotte (Isabella Sermon) tending to a microceratops at a Site B laboratory.
And it’s this scene alone which suggests that a Jurassic Park/Jurassic World prequel trilogy could work. After all, we know very little about Site B/Isla Sorna, as it was quickly abandoned within the timeline in exchange for a nostalgic return to Isla Nublar for Jurassic World (2015).
Related: A Recap of the ‘Jurassic Park’ Film Series Before You Watch ‘Dominion’
A prequel trilogy could explore exactly what happened on Site B during the early days of Jurassic Park, long before John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) invited a team of scientists to sign off on his dinosaur theme park resort.
And the focus of the three films could be Charlotte Lockwood, a character whom we know was compassionate yet flawed (the fact that she cloned herself does raise some ethical questions, and Benjamin Lockwood was shunned by John Hammond for the same reason, after all).
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So, perhaps the best way forward for Jurassic Park/Jurassic World is to go back. A prequel trilogy could also help take things back to basics, long before dinosaurs ever became public knowledge and eventually a global issue. It could also take the series back to its horror roots.
A series of prequels wouldn’t need to feature just dinosaurs, either — we know that InGen and Biosyn created all sorts of prehistoric creatures, such as locusts, reptiles from the Permian period, mammals from the Pleistocene Epoch, and not to mention humans and dinosaur hybrids.
Related: Ian Malcolm Finally Rights a Major Wrong In ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’
As for a chronological follow-up to Jurassic World Dominion, it’s possible that Universal Pictures will eventually give us a live-action TV series, and preferably one that expands upon the dinosaur black market concept introduced in the sequel.
Whether it’s a prequel trilogy, a direct follow-up to Jurassic World Dominion in the form of a live-action TV series, or Jurassic World 4, here’s to hoping that Isabella Sermon will return to the Jurassic franchise as either Charlotte or Maisie Lockwood (or both).
Related: All the Main Dinosaur Villains From the ‘Jurassic Park’ Movies Ranked Worst to Best
As per the Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment website, here’s the official synopsis for Jurassic World Dominion:
From Jurassic World architect and director Colin Trevorrow, Dominion takes place four years after Isla Nublar has been destroyed. Dinosaurs now live — and hunt –alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history’s most fearsome creatures.
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Jurassic World Dominion is directed by Colin Trevorrow and stars Bryce Dallas Howard (Claire Dearing), Chris Pratt (Owen Grady), Mamoudou Athie (Ramsay Cole), Isabella Sermon (Maisie Lockwood), Omar Sy (Barry Sembène), BD Wong (Henry Wu), Campbell Scott (Lewis Dodgson), DeWanda Wise (Kayla), Jeff Goldblum (Dr. Ian Malcolm), Sam Neill (Dr. Alan Grant), and Laura Dern (Dr. Ellie Sattler).
Jurassic World Dominion is now available on demand. An “extended cut” will be available to purchase on DVD and Blu-ray on August 16.
Would you like to see a Jurassic Park/Jurassic World prequel trilogy? Let us know in the comments down below!