Credit: Universal PicturesJurassic World Rebirth (2025) was billed as the start of “a new Jurassic era”. Instead, it wrote the series into a corner by undoing one of the biggest storylines established by its predecessors.
Jurassic World Rebirth Is Awful
Jurassic World Dominion (2022) ended with dinosaurs thriving around the world, finally taking the franchise beyond the jungle island setting. That premise was first established in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), and it became so popular with fans that it carried over into other Jurassic media, including tie-in novels, games, short films, animated series, and mobile apps.
But Rebirth inexplicably walked that storyline back, establishing that dinosaurs had largely disappeared from the wild and once again concentrating the story around a remote location.
David Koepp, who wrote the screenplay for Rebirth, later admitted to The Hollywood Reporter he “didn’t have a single idea about where to go” with the global dinosaur storyline. His solution was to “make dinosaurs exotic and special” again by restricting them, returning the franchise to yet another remote island.
The result was Rebirth, a film that is perhaps best summed up by Dr. Ian Malcolm when he comments on the Triceratops’ big pile of dino droppings in the original Jurassic Park (1993).
Jurassic World 5 in Trouble
Koepp is now returning to write its sequel. However, Gareth Edwards, who helmed last year’s film, has just exited the project over “creative differences.”
Last week, Deadline reported that Edwards will not be returning for the sequel to last year’s Jurassic World Rebirth.
“Insiders say the decision was made due to creative differences, and Edwards will now focus on other original projects he is developing,” the outlet wrote, adding, “The studio is opening up the search for a new director.” Universal released a statement on Thursday saying, “We had an incredible experience working with Gareth on Jurassic World Rebirth.”
What this means for the next Jurassic World movie is unclear. But many fans are now convinced that the series is in trouble again, especially in the hands of Koepp, who recently told Screen Rant that he’s unsure how to continue the series in “a logically and in a scientifically believable way,” a baffling comment given that he introduced mutant dinosaurs to the franchise in the latest film.
“You can’t say trilogy. You got to make one good movie. So now what about another good movie? How would we do that? I think that the challenge of Rebirth was [the franchise has] become very big, very spread out. Let’s make the dinosaurs special again by restricting them. So we restricted them to this thing, and then the challenge becomes, okay, now how do we logically and in a scientifically believable way expand? That would be the question. If somebody can answer that, I think you’ll have a next movie.”
Nevertheless, even though Edwards’ departure changes things, the film is reportedly moving ahead and is expected to begin shooting in 2027. Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali are all expected to reprise their roles, leaving Universal with a sequel that must continue a story that has already struggled to establish where the dinosaurs belong.
Related: ‘Jurassic Park’ Officially Hitting Reset After ‘Rebirth’ Ruins Film Series
But what can Jurassic Park do that it hasn’t done before?
Koepp had the perfect playground to work with—an entire world filled with dinosaurs. Instead of building upon that premise, though, he chose the lazy route. Did it pay off? Commercially, yes. The film grossed $869.1 million worldwide. Creatively, however, the Jurassic film series is completely bankrupt.
Of course, there are ways to undo what Koepp did. But would he retcon his own work? Whether or not he does reinstate the global dinosaur premise remains to be seen. Still, audiences are eager to see something different from the franchise at this point.
But Edwards’ exit makes this an ideal opportunity for Universal to reset the franchise completely.
Jurassic Park Needs a Full Reboot
Interestingly, Universal already has a Jurassic project showing what that could look like. The upcoming first-person action-adventure video game Jurassic Park: Survival goes back to 1993, taking place just one day after the events of Steven Spielberg’s original film. Players control InGen scientist Dr. Maya Joshi, who’s stranded on Isla Nublar and must survive the dinosaurs.
Rather than dealing with Dominion, Rebirth, or decades of increasingly complicated continuity, Survival returns to the original park and asks what happened after the original movie ended.
A new Jurassic Park film could do something similar. Universal could abandon the increasingly difficult and complicated Jurassic World continuity and start again, returning to Michael Crichton’s original premise while introducing a new cast and a completely new take on the story.
This also feels like the right thing to do following the recent passing of actor Sam Neill.
Jurassic Park: Survival Is Coming Soon
The official synopsis for the game states:
“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.”
The game will be released on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, although it currently has no release date.
Could this be the moment Universal finally hits the reset button on Jurassic Park? Let us know what you think the future of the franchise should look like in the comments below!
