Credit: Inside the MagicJurassic World Rebirth (2025) has divided fans like a pack of raptors divides a herd.
The latest entry in the long-running series has many problems (Snickers bar, zero character development, lack of plot, to name a few), but none are as frustrating as the major retcon of the events of the previous two films, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) and Jurassic World Dominion (2022), which ushered in an era where dinosaurs literally ruled the earth.
Those two films might have suffered their own pitfalls, but the idea of a world in which dinosaurs co-exist with humans was a promising setup for future sequels, and something fans have always wanted. Sure, Dominion bungled this concept by focusing on Biosyn Valley in Italy’s Dolomite Mountains instead of continuing with the globe-trotting antics of the first act, but that doesn’t mean Rebirth had to give up on the concept altogether.
Now, the seventh film, directed by Gareth Edwards (2014’s Godzilla reboot) and written by David Koepp (Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park), undoes all of it; ridding the world of its dinosaur populations because the planet’s air has suddenly and inexplicably become unbreathable for them, relegating any survivors to oxygen-rich equatorial regions.
The reason? There isn’t one. It has nothing to do with the new island, which has always had its own dinosaurs. Rebirth simply doesn’t want the baggage of a world filled with dinosaurs, even though all it ever had to do was nothing. You could remove any mention of the prehistoric animals’ global presence and it would make no difference whatsoever to the film.
Related: ‘Jurassic Park’: Full Recap of the Entire Film Series Before You Watch ‘Rebirth’
Nevertheless, most dinosaurs around the world have died, or are dying out — yes, that probably includes legacy dinosaurs like Rexy and Blue. But not all hope is lost, because this concept is being expanded in two other upcoming Jurassic World sequels.
The first one, “Jurassic World Evolution 3”, releasing on October 21, might not be quite as important as the other as it’s a video game and therefore not necessarily considered canon. Still, it takes the Jurassic World franchise global like never before, offering players the opportunity to build and manage theme parks in destinations such as Europe and Asia.
The other sequel, however, Jurassic World: Chaos Theory Season 4, will continue with the setup established at the end of Season 3, which premiered on Netflix earlier this year.
The series follows on from Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous and takes place sometime after the events of Fallen Kingdom, with “The Nublar Six” now older, wiser, and living in a world where dinosaurs are flourishing everywhere.
Darius Bowman (Paul-Mikél Williams), Ben Pincus (Sean Giambrone), Yasmina Fadoula (Kausar Mohammed), Kenji Kon (Darren Barnet), Sammy Gutierrez (Raini Rodriguez), and Brooklynn (Kiersten Kelly) return to thwart a global conspiracy involving the illegal trade of dinosaurs, a quest that concludes in Season 3 with the characters arriving at Biosyn Valley.
Season 4, which premieres on November 20, will continue with this storyline, this time dropping the gang in Biosyn Valley where their adventure will, as it did in Malta in Season 3, overlap with that of Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard).
While those characters haven’t appeared in the series yet, previous seasons introduced other familiar faces from the films, including black market dealer Soyona Santos (Dichen Lachman reprises her role), French CIA operative Barry Sembène (played by Omar Sy in the films, voiced by Evan Michael Lee in the series), and Biosyn CEO Lewis Dodgson (played by Campbell Scott in Dominion, voiced by Adam Harrington in Chaos Theory).
Whether or not more characters will get their animated debut in Chaos Theory Season 4 remains to be seen, but either way, it’s reassuring to know that this corner of the Jurassic franchise isn’t giving up on the dinosaurs-living-with-humans concept so prematurely.
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? Sound off in the comments!