Nobody saw it coming when the Jurassic World franchise took the box office by storm in 2015. The Jurassic Park franchise had effectively been dead since Jurassic Park III in 2001. The studio’s and the audience’s expectations for a fourth film in a long-dormant franchise were pretty low. Rather than just being another generic sequel, Jurassic World took a lot of what the original Jurassic Park film did and reworked it into something that felt fresh and new in a big way. The irony is not lost on us, considering it’s a movie franchise about bringing long-extinct animals back into existence using cloning. The Jurassic franchise was back! Only now, just a few years later, it may be on the endangered species list again.
Jurassic Franchise Going Extinct
Franchise star Chris Pratt recently stated that he believes that the upcoming Jurassic World Dominion (2022) is the finale of the entire franchise. While we have known for some time that it would be the conclusion of a planned Jurassic World trilogy, there had not been much discussion of it being the finale of the entire Jurassic series, which spanned a total of six films over thirty years. In a recent interview with The Today Show, Pratt said:
You know when you go to a fireworks display like the Fourth of July or New Years, there’s always the finale? You’re waiting for it, and then boom! And you’re like, ‘Oh! This is it! This is the finale!’ I feel like the whole movie is that. It’s…30 years in the making, it’s the sixth Jurassic film, it’s the end of this franchise.
When asked for clarification as to what he means about it being the end of the Jurassic franchise, the star continued:
I really do think it’s the end. You’ve got the legacy cast back — Sam Neil, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum plus the cast of Jurassic World all…converging in a way that is very much a finale.
Bringing The Team Together
Chris Pratt has been starring in the Jurassic franchise alongside Bryce Dallas Howard since Jurassic World (2015), with the pair having led both of that film’s sequels, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) and Jurassic World: Dominion (2022). When he talks about the return of the legacy cast, he is, of course, referring to the stars of the original Jurassic Park (1993) film, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum. In addition to the original film, Goldblum had reprised his role as Ian Malcolm for The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and again in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018). Meanwhile, Sam Neill and Laura Dern had only opted to return as Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler for Jurassic Park III (2001). Even then, Dern only appeared in a severely limited capacity.
When asked about his feelings about working with these returning cast members who are reprising some of their most iconic roles, Pratt wasn’t shy about his excitement and gleefully stated:
The first time I saw Jurassic Park, I was thirteen. I had no idea I was going to be an actor. If you would’ve told me that I would be doing this, there’s no way I would’ve believed it. And these folks were cemented in my mind as icons, and so to be working with them is a dream come true.
Jurassic World: Dominion comes from director Colin Trevorrow and stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Mamoudou Athie, Scott Haze, Daniella Pineda, Justice Smith, Campbell Scott, Dichen Lachman, Isabella Sermon, Omar Sy, DeWanda Wise, and B.D. Wong. The film will see humanity living in the aftermath of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), which saw dinosaurs released globally into the wild. You can catch Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) exclusively in theaters on June 10, 2022.
Do you think that the Jurassic World franchise should stop here? Or could there be more to the story that we’re potentially missing out on just to bring things to a close? Should we hope for more sequels? As the legendary Ian Malcolm once said, “Life finds a way.”
Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments section below and stick around GeekAnything for more Jurassic World updates!
