This summer, the Jurassic Park franchise returns with another blockbuster film, Jurassic World Rebirth, directed by Gareth Edwards and written by Jurassic Park veteran, David Koepp. Set to hit the big screens on July 2, 2025, this seventh movie rages and rides on familiar themes of arrogance and nature’s punishment but now with a dramatic twist: the dinosaurs are not just back, they hold the cure. 

Rebirth opens five years after the events that unfolded in Jurassic World Dominion, in a world where Earth’s environment has grown largely unlivable and hostile to our formerly prehistoric creatures. Dinosaurs now exist only in isolated, tropical habitats reminiscent of their ancient homes. Enter Zora Bennett who leads a top-secret covert ops team that is contracted by Big Pharma to secure genetic material from the planet’s three largest surviving dinosaurs, the behemoths of land, sea, and sky. Why? These giant lizard’s DNA may hold a miracle drug, a treatment or cure to heal human health crises such as heart disease

However, as all Jurassic Park movies go, things go sideways fast. Zora’s mission collides with a civilian family, the Delgados, who were caught and stranded at sea when aquatic dinosaurs attacked the family. Stranded together on “Site C,” a forbidden island once used by InGen for covert research and inhumane experiments on these prehistoric creatures, they discover the real danger: mutated “failed” dinosaur experiments that have evolved freely and unchecked over decades, including the horrifying Distortus rex, a monstrous six-limbed T‑rex mutant. 

The film features a bold, new, star-driven cast as the franchise introduces Scarlett Johansson playing our main protagonist, Zora Bennett. Johansson is the first female lead the franchise has seen, previews portraying Zora as steadfast and resilient, a role built partly from her own influence on the character’s design. The franchise is also introducing Mahershala Ali who is playing Duncan Kincaid, Zora’s trusted teammate and black-ops logistician and Jonathan Bailey starring as Dr. Henry Loomis, a paleontologist recruited for the mission. The supporting players in this cast are: Rupert Friend as Martin Krebs, the Big Pharma executive behind the operation. Manuel Garcia‑Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono, and Audrina Miranda as the Delgado family, and Philippine Velge, Béchir Sylvain, and Ed Skrein rounding out Zora’s mission squad. On the creative side, irs clear Gareth Edwards intends to return to the suspense and grit of Spielberg’s original Jurassic Park, drawing on and using the classic horror tropes, suspense, and real dinosaur consultants to ensure authenticity.

At the film’s base, Rebirth is a renewed exploration of the ethics presented in the Jurassic Park series: the power of science and human intervention against mother nature and her natural order. However this time, rather than park attractions and prehistoric awe, humans are resurrecting these dinosaurs for the “greater good,” to potentially cure life threatening diseases. 

The film also explicitly echoes and criticizes modern, contemporary sciences—specifically resurrection biology, or de-extinction—as scientists make the venture and effort to revive extinct species such as wooly mammoths, Tasmanian tigers, or dire wolves. Rebirth therefore asks: if we are reversing extinction for pure humanitarianism and educational purposes, is that better, or is this just arrogance in another suit?

Also by choosing a female lead, this film is already challenging the franchise’s standard romantic tropes. Johannson’s character, Zora, has no planned romancantic plot, rather she wields and uses her competence and wit, complementing her character’s bleak toughness with intelligent problem solving. This pushes Rebirth toward emotional authenticity while keeping adrenaline high. 

Our prehistoric journey began with Jurassic Park (1993), directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Michael Crichton’s novel. It left audiences in awe with the film’s groundbreaking effects and the introduction of the chilling question: what if we brought the dinosaurs back to life? Set on Isla Nublar, the film followed Dr. Alan Grant, Dr. Ellie Sattler, and Dr. Ian Malcolm as they experienced the wonders, and terrors, of resurrected dinosaurs. 

The story then continued with The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), where humans tried to capture dinosaurs from a second island, known as Isla Sorna or Site B, for profit, and Jurassic Park III (2001), which followed Dr. Grant on a rescue mission on Isla Sorna that resulted in a survival nightmare.

Fourteen years later, the franchise returned with Jurassic World (2015), imagining and creating a fully functioning dinosaur theme park. New characters like Owen Grady, played by Chris Pratt, and Claire Dearing, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, faced the fallout and collapse of genetic engineering gone wrong. Its sequels, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) and Jurassic World Dominion (2022), raised the stakes even higher as dinosaurs spread and dispersed across the world, forcing humans to coexist with them.

Through all six films, one message has been constant the whole time: when we try to control nature, it pushes back. What started as a spectacle has become a warning and a reflection of our own ambitions. 

This film, Edwards is leaning into the more traditional horror that Jurassic Park has always intended to have. Instead of theme parks and fun, dinosaurs are roaming around suburban lagoons, dense jungles, and the lab’s broken corridors—where the shadows hide their monstrous silhouettes. 

What makes Rebirth more than another upcoming sequel is its moral boldness. The film is not just rehashing the message of “don’t clone dinosaurs” —its already challenging and reminding us to consider and think about the ethicality of rescue science. In a world that is grappling and fighting with climate collapse and species extinction, Rebirth is reflecting our very real impulse to restore what we have lost in nature at all costs. 

As Jurassic World Rebirth prepares to stomp into theaters, it is clear fron the get go this isn’t just another dino-sized spectacle. It is a raw, adrenaline-fueled reminder that nature doesn’t take kindly to being tamed. With Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali at the helm, and Gareth Edwards steering things into darker, and more grounded territory, the franchise sheds and moves away from its theme park skin for something that is going to be grittier and more intimate.

It isn’t just about awe anymore, it’s about survival, and the question the film leaves hanging in the air is the same one scientists are quietly debating and arguing about in labs today: Just because we can bring something back, should we? Rebirth doesn’t just serve you classic nostalgia on a silver platter rather its going to throw you into the jungle with nothing but your conscience and a bad feeling in your gut.