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Credit: Universal PicturesJurassic World Rebirth (2025) is making an absolute fortune at the global box office. According to Variety, $647 million worldwide as of July 20 and counting. Which means that a sequel is inevitable. But just because a film is succeeding commercially, that doesn’t mean it’s actually any good. In fact, Rebirth is an absolute stinker.
Come to think of it, it stinks so much that Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) said it best in Steven Spielberg’s original 1993 blockbuster, during the scene where he cast his eyes upon a giant pile of Triceratops droppings.
The new film, directed by Gareth Edwards (2014’s Godzilla) and written by David Koepp (who co-wrote Jurassic Park and 1997’s The Lost World), has writing so bad it’s hard to believe a human cooked it up, characters that also feel like they were concocted by A.I., retcons too big to ignore (it criminally undoes the storyline in which dinosaurs are thriving around the world), and tame dino-on-human kills that make the animated Netflix shows look brutal by comparison, to name just a few of its many hard-to-overlook problems.
Now, angry fans are rejecting the film. Sure, like any bad flick, Rebirth has its defenders, but generally speaking, it hasn’t landed well with audiences and loyalists.
So much that many are now even refusing to accept it as canon. Interestingly, Rebirth isn’t necessarily canon to the Jurassic series. Here are a few reasons to back up this bold claim.
1. Sequels Are Purely Optional Viewing
If you wish to pretend that a sequel like Rebirth simply doesn’t exist, then you’re free to do just that — it’s your choice, no matter what other fans will tell you. All you need to do is absolutely nothing. Just don’t ever watch it. The trouble is that, if it’s a middle film you hate and you’re fine with the follow-up(s), then you’ve no choice but to accept that film as canon.
2. Rebirth Feels Like Fan Fiction
Rebirth has awful writing. In our view, this means that it doesn’t earn being taken seriously or considered canon. The filmmakers “stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as they could, and they patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now they’re selling it.” It has the Jurassic brand, but that’s it.
3. “Canon” Means a “Widely” Accepted Body of Work
Wikipedia defines “canon” in fiction as being “the body of works taking place in a particular fictional world that are widely considered to be official or authoritative; [especially] those created by the original author or developer of the world”. Okay, so Rebirth is official, but many fans do not consider it to be canon, which means it is widely rejected.
4. The Previous Jurassic Films Can Function Without It
Of course, it goes without saying that previous films can function without a newer entry, but this couldn’t be more true than in the case of Jurassic. Luckily, Rebirth continues the sequel trend, because had it been a prequel or an in-between-quel, it would be much harder to argue the fact that it’s something that can be discarded as easily as, say, a Snickers wrapper.
5. It’s Difficult to Imagine the Film Taking Place Within the Universe Established in Previous Films
Many fans struggle to accept certain sequels as being part of the world established in the original. This applies to all the Jurassic World films prior to Rebirth. Heck, let’s also bring in Jurassic Park III (2001). After all, those four films are outlandish compared to those first two entries. But Rebirth feels like it fits in the least — it truly is a mutant abomination.
6. The Real Ghostbusters Example
The animated series The Real Ghostbusters follows on from the original Ghostbusters films (although the 1989 sequel was released during the cartoon’s run). But its canonicity is not reciprocated: Yes, the films are canon to it, but the series is not canon to the films. So, while the previous six Jurassic films are canon to Rebirth, it’s not necessarily true in reverse order.
7. The I Know What You Did Example
The third I Know What You Did Last Summer is now out in theaters, but, unbeknownst to many fans, there was already a third movie — the straight-to-video sequel I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer in 2006. But it’s so cheap and nasty that it isn’t actually related to the first two. You’d be hard-pressed to find a single IKWYDLS fan who accepts it as canon.
8. It’s Not on Theme With Jurassic At All
Literally every single Jurassic film, from the 1993 original through Dominion, deals with the idea of “life finding a way”. But Rebirth goes completely off-brand, revealing that dinosaurs are suddenly dying out everywhere around the world. So, life didn’t find a way. Did Universal Pictures and the filmmakers forget about a theme that’s so integral to Jurassic Park‘s DNA?
9. Maybe There’s a Jurassic Multiverse
Almost every franchise these days has its own Multiverse these days. Marvel. DC. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Spider-Man. So why not Jurassic? There’s obviously no in-universe science that suggests this could be part of the narrative, but outside the films one could easily view Rebirth as a standalone installment that merely “branches off” the main series.
Or who knows — maybe that Snickers bar wrapper created a tear in the fabric of reality.
Watch the official trailer for Jurassic World Rebirth below:
Related: ‘Jurassic’ Fans Should Be Very Worried About ‘Rebirth’s Box Office Performance
Jurassic World Rebirth is out in theaters now.
It stars Scarlett Johansson (Avengers: Endgame), Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton), Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (The Lincoln Lawyer), Rupert Friend (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Mahershala Ali (The Green Book), Luna Blaise (Manifest), David Iacono (Dead Boy Detectives), Audrina Miranda (Lopez vs Lopez), Philippine Velge (Station Eleven), Bechir Sylvain (BMF), and Ed Skrein (Deadpool).
What did you think of Rebirth? Do you accept it as canon? Sound off in the comments!