Credit: Universal PicturesAn upcoming Jurassic Park sequel is likely to bring back the entire lineup from the original 1993 film.
Jurassic Park is no stranger to bringing back characters from previous films. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), Lex (Ariana Richards), and Tim (Joe Mazzello) appeared across the sequels that followed Steven Spielberg’s 1993 blockbuster—The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Jurassic Park III (2001)—even if some of those reprisals were fleeting.
Related: Original ‘Jurassic Park’ (1993) Might Be Getting an Alternate Ending
How Jurassic Park Leans on Legacy Characters
The Jurassic World films were a lot more consistent than the Jurassic Park trilogy, putting Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), and Henry Wu (BD Wong) front and center in all three films, while the final installment in that series, Jurassic World Dominion (2022), brought back Alan, Ellie, and Ian, as well as Barry Sembène (Omar Sy) from the 2015 film and Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon) from the previous entry, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018). Even Lewis Dodgson from Jurassic Park returned, although he was portrayed by Campbell Scott and not Cameron Thor from the original film.
Needless to say, no character in the Jurassic Park franchise ever goes extinct—unless of course they were eaten by a dinosaur. But even then, there’s no guarantee they’re gone forever. Just look at the Jurassic World animated shows, Camp Cretaceous (2020—2022) and Chaos Theory (2024—2025), which take place between movies and therefore have the freedom to feature the likes of Barry (Evan Michael Lee), Dodgson (Adam Harrington), Wu (Greg Chun), and Soyona Santos (Dichen Lachman).
Will Any Jurassic Legacy Characters Return?
Whether any of those original legacy characters—Alan, Ellie, and Ian, in particular—will ever return again remains to be seen, as Dominion wraps up all their character arcs in meaningful ways. But now that the Jurassic franchise has started to hop back and forth along its own timeline in the same way Star Wars has since the very beginning, the jury is out. Soon, fans will be going back to the original Park era with Jurassic Park: Survival (TBA), which means we may see them back in action (presumably with different actors portraying them, though).
The upcoming first-person action-adventure title from Saber Interactive takes place just 24 hours after the events of the 1993 film. While it’s fair to say that those characters are long gone from Isla Nublar—they escape by helicopter after their encounter with the raptors and the T. rex in the Visitor Center—there’s every chance they’ll make some sort of appearance.
Related: Upcoming ‘Jurassic Park’ Sequel May Retcon 1993 Film’s Ending
Who’s in Jurassic Park: Survival?
The only confirmed character in the game is Dr. Maya Joshi (voiced and performed in motion capture by Payal Mistry), an InGen scientist who has somehow failed to evacuate the island with her co-workers. To survive the deadly prehistoric predators, she’ll have to use stealth, intelligence, and all the resources available to her by exploring a “fully realized Isla Nublar,” from iconic locations like the Visitor Center and the park gates to never-before-seen areas like a resort hotel and underground bunkers.
However, just because the game is set after the film, that doesn’t mean well-known characters can be ruled out. And we aren’t just talking about Alan, Ellie, and Ian—Jurassic Park: Survival could bring back John Hammond, Lex, and Tim, and even those who were killed on screen, such as Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight), Robert Muldoon (Bob Peck), Ray Arnold (Samuel L. Jackson), and Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero).
How Survival Could Bring Back Legacy Characters
Jurassic Park: Survival is already being compared to Creative Assembly’s hit 2014 title Alien: Isolation—which acts as a sequel to Alien (1979)—largely because it’s a first-person survival where you must outlast deadly creatures that are reactive and can adapt their behaviors based on the player’s patterns.
However, it may draw even more inspiration from that game by featuring a DLC that allows fans to play as characters such as Alan or Ellie, similar to Isolation‘s Crew Expendable add-on, included in the “Nostromo Edition,” which allows players to relive a scene from Alien (1979) and, as such, features characters like Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley.
A similar add-on in the Jurassic Park game could allow players to relive iconic moments from the film that are more mission-oriented, such as Ellie having to turn the power back on, or even Mr. Arnold’s ill-fated trip to the same maintenance shed earlier in the film.
While nothing has even been remotely hinted at by Saber Interactive or Universal, the game is already taking some creative liberties, such as bringing the raptor that Lex and Tim locked in the kitchen freezer—which was previously thought to have died. Alternatively, if not in the form of a DLC, legacy characters could return in the form of flashback sequences or video diaries.
We’ll just have to wait and see—although there’s no release date for the game yet.
“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,” the synopsis for the game reads, adding, “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.
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