Fate of Universal Studios’ Jurassic Park/Jurassic World Attractions Confirmed in New Report

in Movies & TV

Ellen, Alan, and Lex looking at the T-Rex in 'Jurassic Park'

Credit: Universal Pictures

Hold onto your butts… fate of the Jurassic Park/Jurassic World franchise has been revealed.

Jurassic Park‘s Unwavering Success and Pop Culture Impact

There’s a real sense of irony with the Jurassic Park franchise. Not only is the original 1993 film considered something of a cautionary tale for its own sequels — “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn’t stop to think if they should!” — but the filmmakers were the real-life InGen scientists: they brought dinosaurs back to life.

Directed by Steven Spielberg, the 1993 blockbuster pioneered ground-breaking digital and practical VFX that blended almost seamlessly between shots. There are even a few moments in the film when the dinosaurs look like real animals (particularly the T-Rex animatronic), which makes you wonder whether Spielberg had actually genetically engineered real ones.

After grossing $1.058 billion worldwide (against its $63 million budget), the film instantly spawned waves of merchandise, which included toys, comic books, collectibles, and apparel. 31 years on, and there are now several Jurassic sequels (with a new one in the works starring Scarlett Johansson in the lead role), animated shows, theme park attractions, and more.

Forget plastic lunchboxes — they’ve slapped Jurassic Park on pretty much everything.

Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler looking up at the Brachiosaurus in 'Jurassic Park'
Credit: Universal Studios

Are the Dinosaurs of Jurassic Park/Jurassic World the Next Best Thing?

Fans and dinosaur enthusiasts alike looking to get their dino-fix needn’t look any further than the real-world Jurassic experiences. Every Universal Studios resort around the world houses Jurassic-themed attractions, each one inspired by the iconic film series, whether it’s from the original Park side of the franchise or under the more recent World banner.

Jurassic Park River Adventure and Jurassic World: The Ride are just two of many attractions. But are their animatronic dinosaurs that convincing? The larger ones (T-Rex and Indominus Rex) are jaw-dropping, but if you want to be as awe-struck as you were when you first watched Jurassic Park (1993), look no further than Jurassic World: The Exhibition.

For the most part, the experience showcases hyper-realistic, movie-quality animatronic dinosaurs across park, lab, and jungle “settings.” From Parasaurolophus to Ankylosaurus, Pachycephalosaurs to Brachiosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex to Indominus Rex, you’ll feel like you’re on Isla Nublar. Yes, this does happen to have dinosaurs on its dinosaur tour!

The Brachiosaur in Jurassic World: The Exhibition
Credit: Universal Studios

Related: Universal’s Jurassic Park Likely To Be Permanently Demolished in 2025

The tagline for the experience, which currently has its massive gates open in Manchester, UK, Melbourne, Australia, and Mexico City, reads, “You’ll never get closer to living dinosaurs.” It’s true — we’ve seen these creatures up, close, and personal, and they’ve been “spared no expense” as John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) would say.

The T-Rex and the Indominus, in particular, are breath-taking (even more so if they actually got a hold of you).

“Board the ferry to Isla Nublar and walk across the massive Jurassic World gates,” the official website says. “Walk under a majestic Brachiosaurus, come face-to-face with ferocious Raptors, and get a rare up-close look at the most vicious dinosaur of them all, the Tyrannosaurus rex,” adding that this is “the closest you’ll ever come to living dinosaurs.”

Fortunately, Jurassic World: The Exhibition and Universal Studios have already learned to co-exist. Attractions like Jurassic Park: The Ride might not offer the best animatronic dinosaurs (they’re still awesome), but The Exhibition doesn’t feature any thrilling rides. And there’s also the show-stopping stage production, Jurassic World: Live Tour.

But is there another dinosaur project on the horizon that’s set to eventually put these real-world Jurassic Park/Jurassic World experiences completely out of business faster than a greedy, disgruntled computer programmer? In fact, if there is, it wouldn’t just be theme park attractions and exhibitions we should be worried about — even the films would go extinct!

Guests pass a dinosaur on Jurassic Park: The Ride
Credit: Universal Studios Japan

An Ongoing Debate

When the original Jurassic Park left a dinosaur-sized footprint in both the global box office back in 1993, it didn’t just lead to a pop culture phenomenon, it also sparked a thought-provoking debate that, to this day, hasn’t showed any signs of abating: Can we really bring back dinosaurs? Does the science in the films hold any merit here in the real world?

Based on the 1990 bestseller of the same name by the late Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park centers around the concept of scientists discovering prehistoric mosquitos fossilized and perfectly preserved in rocks of amber, the result of being consumed by tree sap tens of millions of years ago. And, inside the blood-sucking mosquitos is — bingo! — dino DNA.

By the time we arrive on Isla Nublar in the first film, the bioengineering company InGen has already used that DNA to genetically engineer — and then clone — living, breathing dinosaurs, having filled in the DNA’s gap sequences using that of certain modern-day reptiles like the African bullfrog. But how accurate is the science in Jurassic Park?

Is it a real science or a pseudo-science?

Henry Wu (BD Wong) in his office in 'Jurassic World' (2015)
Credit: Universal Studios

Related: Universal Studios’ Jurassic Park Attractions May Be Doomed, New Report Suggests

The Science of Jurassic Park

At the time of the original film’s release, director Steven Spielberg described his epic blockbuster as “science eventuality” and not “science fiction,” convinced that, one day, scientists would be able to achieve the unthinkable and create a real-life Jurassic Park.

And plenty have tried — or, at the very least, explored the possibility. Jurassic Park is very much like Back to the Future in that sense; another film that inspired scientists to create unthinkable things. But let’s put it this way — self-tying sneakers and hoverboards were always going to be a lot easier than populating a zoo with real dinosaurs.

So, sadly, after decades of debating at the dinner table, during which at least one family member thinks they’re Jeff Goldblum, Dr. Beth Shapiro of US bioengineering company Colossal Bioscience, which is based out of Dallas, Texas, explained why Jurassic Park is impossible.

Per UNILAD, in a reel from Colossal shared last month, Shapiro said, “Core to Colossal [Biosciences’] mission is this idea of de-extinction. When most people think of de-extinction, one very specific image [Jurassic Park] comes to mind. But this is not what we’re doing.”

“Dinosaurs went extinct more than 65 million years ago,” the real-life Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong) continued. “The oldest DNA that we have recovered so far is somewhere between one and two million years old but most DNA degrades away by 10 or 20,000 years.”

Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) screaming "Run" in 'Jurassic World'
Credit: Universal Studios

Breaking the hearts of many Jurassic Park fans who’ve already been waiting 31 years to see real prehistoric reptiles brought back to life, she concluded, “Fossils are rocks and rocks don’t have DNA. It is also not possible to recover DNA from mosquitoes preserved in amber. I’ve tried it, it doesn’t work. There is no DNA in mosquitoes in amber, there is no DNA in dinosaur fossils, dinosaur de-extinction is not going to happen. I am very sorry.”

But don’t worry — it’s not all bad news. Earlier this year, Mr Ben Lamm, chief executive of Colossal Biosciences told Sky News that the company is in the process of bringing back the Tasmanian tiger, the dodo, and the woolly mammoth, saying that it’s “just a [case] of time and funding” and that they’re “100% confident” they can achieve the seemingly impossible.

The oldest of those three species — by tens of thousands of years — is the woolly mammoth, the massive Pleistocene beast that went extinct 10,000 years ago as a result of major environmental changes, with human hunting serving as a possible contributing factor.

Obviously, dinosaurs are much older, with their global reign lasting between 165 and 177 million years. And therein lies the problem. But also, a lot of the science in Jurassic Park — as ingenious as it is in concept — is fictitious.

Mr. DNA in 'Jurassic Park'
Credit: Universal Pictures

Related: Universal Suddenly Scraps ‘Jurassic World’ Sequel, Future of Franchise Unknown

“Amber is not a good holder of DNA,” Lamm explained. “But it’s a very entertaining movie and I think Jurassic Park made a lot of people interested in science. I saw it when I was younger and I was like: ‘Wow genetics is cool’. It did a lot to explain to the masses that genetic engineering is a thing and something that can be used in powerful ways, and I do think more people understand Colossal [Biosciences] because of that.”

But how are they bringing back the woolly mammoth, the dodo, and the Tasmanian tiger if they can’t bring back dinosaurs? Well, it looks like African bullfrog DNA is out of the question. “We’ve got all the technology we need,” Lamm revealed.

“It’s almost reverse Jurassic Park. In the film, they were filling in the holes in the dinosaur DNA with frog DNA. We are leveraging artificial intelligence and other tools to identify the core genes that make a mammoth a mammoth and then engineering them into elephant genomes.”

Artificial intelligence? Sounds like these woolly mammoths might end up being smarter than Jurassic Park’s Velociraptors (on the other hand, can you even open doors with tusks?).

“[Each of the] different projects [the mammoth, dodo, and Tasmanian tiger] have different challenges — the mammoth is really around gestation — which is around 22 months,” Lamm explained.

“The dodo gestation is pretty great. We are using surrogate chickens. The hardest part is cultivating the primordial germ cells. We are well into the editing phase. We don’t have mammoths yet, but we still feel very good about 2028.”

If genetically engineering these creatures is achieved, it would be the biggest scientific breakthrough in human history. But the truth is that Jurassic Park fans probably don’t care about giant furry elephants. So, is there any good news for any those who aren’t thrilled by the prospect of seeing a woolly mammoth attack a lawyer while he’s doing his business?

Yes, there is: you can rest assured that the Jurassic Park franchise isn’t going anywhere, whether it’s the movies or the theme park attractions. As the tagline for the original film reads, “If it ain’t Jurassic Park, it’s extinct.”

That’s one way to look at things. If you’re slightly more pessimistic, you might say that “life won’t find a way.”

T-Rex roaring in the Visitor Center in 'Jurassic Park'
Credit: Universal Pictures

Upcoming Jurassic Park/Jurassic World Projects

Who cares about seeing real dinosaurs when there are several Jurassic projects in the works anyway? The upcoming sequel Jurassic World Rebirth (2025), which is being directed by Gareth Edwards (2014’s Godzilla, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) and stars Scarlett Johansson (the Marvel Cinematic Universe), will be released theatrically on July 2, 2025.

On the smaller screen, Jurassic World: Chaos Theory Season 2 premieres on Netflix on October 17, and the third game in the “Jurassic World Evolution” series will arrive sometime before May 2026. There’s also the upcoming first-person action-adventure video game “Jurassic Park: Survival” (TBA), which is expected to be released sometime next year.

However, unlike the Universal Studios attractions, the game is unlikely to be suitable for kids! Watch the trailer for “Jurassic Park: Survival” below, per Jurassic World YouTube:

Related: New Jurassic Park Theme Park Experience To Replace ALL Universal Attractions

Per the official website, here’s the synopsis for the game:

Return to Isla Nublar the day after the events of the beloved 1993 Jurassic Park film in an original adventure 65 million years in the making.

Survive thrilling first-person action as InGen scientist Dr. Maya Joshi, who was unable to evacuate Isla Nublar, in this single-player action-adventure game and discover a never-before-told story.

Through thrilling encounters, experience the wonder and danger of dinosaurs, each with their own distinct and adaptive behaviors brought to life by John Hammond’s vision.

“Jurassic Park: Survival” will be released on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

What are your thoughts on the de-extinction of prehistoric animals? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!

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