Credit: Universal PicturesThe Jurassic Park film series is finished. At least, the era that defined it is.
While last year’s Jurassic World Rebirth grossed $869.1 million globally, it received mostly negative reviews from longtime fans, audiences, and critics. The film is now widely considered to be the worst entry in the long-running film series, which started with Jurassic Park back in 1993.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, Jurassic Park was a landmark cinematic achievement and a masterclass in filmmaking. It reshaped the modern blockbuster with its groundbreaking digital and practical effects, courtesy of Industrial Light & Magic and Stan Winston, respectively.
It also cemented itself as one of the most iconic films in history, not only through its realistic dinosaurs, but also through its memorable score by John Williams, its original concept of bringing the prehistoric creatures back in a theme park setting through genetic engineering, its nail-biting action sequences, and, of course, its lineup of unforgettable human characters.
Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), Alan Grant (Sam Neill), and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), in particular, are as iconic as the film itself and have long been the heart and soul of the franchise.
They returned in several sequels throughout the series, with Ian appearing in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), Alan and Ellie returning in Jurassic Park III (2001), and all three of them reuniting in Jurassic World Dominion (2022).
While Rebirth introduced all-new cast, leaving not only the original trio behind but also the Jurassic World trilogy ensemble — Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), and Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon) — many fans have remained hopeful that some legacy characters, in particular the Park trio, would return to the franchise in a future film.
Sadly, that’s no longer possible.
Sam Neill Sadly Passes Away at the Age of 78
On Monday July 13, it was announced that Sam Neill had sadly passed away at the age of 78. The beloved actor was diagnosed with stage three angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma in 2022. Earlier this year, he announced that he was “cancer free.” His family said in an official statement:
“It is with immense sadness that the whānau [family] of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney, Australia. Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life. The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free. They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care. More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”
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Should Jurassic Park Continue Without Sam Neill?
It’s hard to imagine the Jurassic Park films continuing without Neill involved, even if there were no plans to bring his character back anytime soon.
Still, the thought of the series moving on without him anyway just doesn’t seem right. As such, now might be the best time for Jurassic Park to hang up its dusty fedora, just like Dr. Grant has.
Jurassic World Dominion neatly wrapped up Alan Grant’s arc, reuniting him romantically with old flame Ellie Sattler after decades apart.
Related: ‘Jurassic Park’ Officially Hitting Reset After ‘Rebirth’ Ruins Film Series
Another Jurassic film is reportedly in early development, however, Rebirth screenwriter David Koepp recently told Screen Rant that there’s no script, while essentially admitting that no one knows how to move the series forward — hardly surprising given how non-existent the last screenplay was.
“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 another film happens remains to be seen, but it’s time the franchise came to an end.
Our thoughts are with Sam Neill’s family and friends during this difficult time.
