Well, we know at least something, be it man or dinosaur, is going to survive at the end of Jurassic World to carry on a brand new franchise. Writer/director Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed) told Empire Online that Universal has plans for sequels, and, if he finds himself at the helm again, knows who he wants to populate them.
“We definitely talked about [sequels] a lot,” Trevorrow told the website. “We wanted to create something that would be a little bit less arbitrary and episode, and something that could potentially arc into a series that would feel like a complete story.”
But who would be popping back up on the dino menu in further sequels? The cast for Jurassic World, due June 12, 2015, is a laundry list of likeable actors: Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy), Bryce Dallas Howard (The Village), Ty Simpkins (Insidious), Judy Greer (the neurotic BFF in almost every romantic comedy), Jake Johnson (who worked with Trevorrow in Safety Not Guaranteed), and Vicent D’Onofrio (Law and Order: Criminal Intent) as the villain. If there’s any validity to the Showbiz Spy report that Howard got stuck inside an animatronic dinosaur’s mouth during filming, then chances are slim that she’ll return for the sequels in one piece.
However, it’s Omar Sy (Bishop in X-Men: Days of Future Past) who Trevorrow made particular mention of being in the sequels. Sy plays a buddy to Pratt’s ex-military man in the film.
“They work together and have some pretty cool action scenes together,” Trevorrow told the website. “I wanted to create a relationship here that could be memorable and potentially carry on to future films.” Whether this is a red herring for Sy, Pratt or any other cast members, or a real spoiler, time will tell.
Not much has officially been released from the set of the June 12, 2015, but JoBlo is reporting the film will depict Jurassic Park as a fully operational theme park 22 years after the events in the first film, and will introduce new dinosaurs, good ones and bad ones, and gene-splicing. Pause for a minute at the thought of “fully operational theme park.” Whereas Jurassic Park was only just opening in the 1993 original movie, this apparent sort-of reboot will fully realize John Hammond’s dream as a theme park open to the public and brings it back to the “theme park runs amok” backdrop. In addition, Jurassic World will evidently utilize animatronics and not just CGI dinosaurs. Sure, Jurassic Park made broad use of CG creatures, but it was the up-close-and-personal, sustained terror inflicted by the animatronic T-Rex attacking the jeep that is such an iconic moment in the trilogy, and holds up 21 years later. It’s worth mentioning that Jurassic World is the first movie in the franchise after the death of the original trilogy’s special effects guru Stan Winston.