2025's summer movie season is going prehistoric with the arrival of the first trailer for Jurassic World Rebirth. This seventh installment, and the first of a "new era" following the Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard trilogy, hails from director Gareth Edwards and boasts a fresh cast including Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali. Despite the impressive talent, including the return of original Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp, the trailer hints at a potential misstep for the franchise. The promise of a world overrun by dinosaurs, teased in Fallen Kingdom and Dominion, seems largely absent.
Let's examine what the trailer reveals and what it leaves out, and why Jurassic World might be missing a huge opportunity.
**A Return to the Cretaceous?**The Jurassic World trilogy received a mixed critical response, yet remains a consistently lucrative global box office powerhouse. Audiences love dinosaurs, and despite Universal's apparent intention to retire the original World cast, more dinosaur blockbusters were inevitable. A new cast and crew were quickly assembled, with Gareth Edwards (director of 2014's Godzilla and Rogue One) being a particularly intriguing choice. Edwards excels at conveying scale in VFX-heavy films, and his CGI background makes him ideally suited for this type of project.
The trailer showcases impressive dinosaur visuals; Edwards' attention to detail in terms of proportions and lighting elevates the film above many recent visually underwhelming blockbusters. His achievement is even more remarkable given the truncated production schedule (hired February 2024, production began June 2024). While the trailer doesn't fully reveal the new characters, the action sequences are promising and feature significant dinosaur screen time—a welcome sight. (Remember the locusts from Jurassic World Dominion? Probably not.)
Despite cautious optimism, the trailer's failure to utilize the "world of dinosaurs" concept, teased since Fallen Kingdom, casts a shadow.
AnswerSee ResultsAnother Island? Really?
The premise: another island teeming with dinosaurs. Not Isla Nublar or Isla Sorna, but a mysterious third location—a purported research facility for the original Jurassic Park. Ignoring canon inconsistencies, the film retreats to familiar territory: a tropical island, isolating the dinosaurs from civilization. Why revert to this trope when the previous trilogy ended with dinosaurs spread across the globe? Universal's synopsis explains that five years after Dominion, the planet's ecology proves inhospitable to dinosaurs, forcing them into isolated equatorial environments.
This feels like an unnecessary step backward. Why invest in establishing a "Jurassic World" only to abandon it? Similar to Dominion's retconning of Fallen Kingdom's ending, Rebirth discards the series' best new idea: dinosaurs roaming freely across the world. This creative choice is baffling, especially for a relaunch aimed at introducing fresh characters and concepts.
The established lore also suffers. Dominion depicted dinosaurs thriving in diverse environments, from snowy regions to cities. If the world is so inhospitable, why did they fare so well in the previous film? The Malta chase sequence in Dominion, showcasing carnivores in a city, was arguably the film's best and most creative scene. The Jurassic franchise is a Hollywood safe bet; audiences consistently want to see dinosaurs. So why not take risks and explore new creative avenues?
The Jurassic franchise is a Hollywood safe bet; so why not take a chance and do something truly different with this series?
While Jurassic World Rebirth may hold surprises beyond the first trailer (the original title was rumored to be Jurassic City), the franchise needs to move beyond the tropical island setting. A complete Planet of the Apes style overhaul isn't necessary, but a middle ground that showcases dinosaurs in new environments would be a welcome change. Ultimately, Jurassic World Rebirth's success will depend on whether the franchise finally embraces innovation over repetition.
Jurassic World Rebirth - Trailer 1 Stills
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