Credit: Universal PicturesJurassic World Rebirth (2025) is considered to be one of the worst films in the series, and perhaps the most damaging.
Despite grossing an impressive $869.1 million worldwide, it faced criticism from fans after undoing the global dinosaurs storyline introduced in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) and expanded in Jurassic World Dominion (2022), as well as lots of other tie-in Jurassic media.
How Did Jurassic World Rebirth Ruin the Film Series?
Directed by Gareth Edwards, with a screenplay by David Koepp, Rebirth explains that “the planet’s ecology has proven largely inhospitable to dinosaurs,” adding, “those remaining exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling the one in which they once thrived.”
Those who felt betrayed by this inexplicable decision were further disappointed when Koepp, who also worked on the screenplays for Jurassic Park (1993) and The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), told The Hollywood Reporter last year that he “didn’t have a single idea about where to go” with that storyline after Dominion. “Let’s make dinosaurs exotic and special so that we have to go seek them out instead of, you know, fighting with them over a cab,” he told the outlet.
Related: Universal Buries Divisive ‘Jurassic World’ Sequel, Moves Forward With New Saga
Shortly after Rebirth was released, Universal retired DinoTracker, an official Jurassic World website that offered fans “real-time” updates on dinosaur populations and their geo-locations. Considered canon with the films, DinoTracker was launched in early 2022 to promote the release of Dominion, and was run “in-universe” by the Department of Prehistoric Wildlife (DPW). Now, attempts to access DinoTracker.com redirected users to the main website, JurassicWorld.com.
Despite previously having an entire world filled with dinosaurs at its disposal, it seems the film series has now been written into a corner, a sentiment fans continue to echo.
Now, in an interview with Screen Rant, Koepp, who more or less confirmed that another film is in early development, has, at the same time, said that he’s unsure how to continue Jurassic in “a logically and in a scientifically believable way,” a comment that’s unlikely to inspire confidence within the fandom. It’s also worth noting that he introduced mutant dinosaurs into the franchise.
“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 franchises have 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.”
Whether the next film is a continuation of the events of Rebirth remains to be seen.
A New Jurassic Park/World Canon Has Been Officially Introduced
Now, Frontier Developments has launched Jurassic World Rebirth Expansion for the park management simulation video game sequel Jurassic World Evolution 3 (2025), which launched last October. The new DLC pack acts as an official prequel to the 2025 film. Watch the trailer:
The expansion, which launches today, June 16, offers explanations that weren’t given in the film itself. For instance, players will learn about the third InGen island Île Saint-Hubert, its facility, mutated dinosaurs like the Distortus rex, and the mysterious ancient Mayan ruins that are seen scattered throughout the jungle in the film, none of which were given any real context on screen.
But how is this a new Jurassic continuity? Well, because Jurassic World Evolution 3 is confirmed to be fully canon. “It’s an original story based just after [Jurassic World] Dominion and its canon,” the game’s designer Mike Evans told Tech Radar last October ahead of launch.
Although this is where things can get quite confusing.
Unlike Rebirth, the game continues to expand on the world-changing events explored in Fallen Kingdom and Dominion, offering players the chance to embark on an “epic globetrotting campaign” in which they can build Jurassic theme parks in various worldwide locations such as Japan, Asia, Europe, and Hawaii.
“Help life find a way,” the synopsis for the game states. “Build your own Jurassic World like never before. Nurture generations of awe-inspiring dinosaurs with the series debut of juveniles, create and manage sprawling prehistoric parks around the globe, and let your imagination roar with powerful new creative options.”
With that said, this continuity could be separate from the films, as a global theme park enterprise is never mentioned in Rebirth. However, that film breaks canon in multiple ways, which might explain why the new expansion seems dedicated to clearing up confusion and answering many unresolved questions audiences have had since the film was released in theaters last summer.
Jurassic World Evolution 3: Rebirth Expansion is now available for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. There’s no release date for the next Jurassic film.
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