The Jurassic Park films will never go extinct. After this year’s reboot of the franchise, Jurassic World Rebirth, grossed almost $900 million worldwide, a sequel seemed more likely, and now, it’s apparently happening. Director Gareth Edwards is returning to direct, and stars Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali are all expected to come back as well.
The InSneider was the first to break the news. io9 reached out to Universal for comment or clarification, but had not yet heard back as of publication. We’ll update this story if or when we hear back.
Either way, the news isn’t exactly surprising, of course. As we said, Rebirth was a massive hit, one of the biggest of the year, and while it didn’t quite make as much as the previous installment, Jurassic World Dominion (which crossed a billion), the film’s success both domestically and internationally proved that the franchise still has legs. Plus, Edwards was able to jump on board a project pretty far along and do something solid with it. He at least deserved to develop his own sequel from the very beginning.
There’s no word on who will be writing the film or when we might see it in theaters, but the last film clearly left the story wide open. The team had retrieved the necessary materials to create a radical breakthrough medicine and unleashed it on the whole world. Clearly, the company they were working for wasn’t pleased, but they are probably heroes to most everyone else. Why they’d have to go anywhere to tangle with dinosaurs again, we don’t know, but that’s Hollywood’s job to figure out. Also, Ali’s character was originally supposed to die, but the filmmakers specifically brought him back so that he could return for a sequel. The writing was on the wall.
Steven Spielberg will also return as an executive producer, and it’s already been a big day for the legend. Earlier today, it was confirmed he’d once again return to produce a third Gremlins movie as well. So until audiences stop going to see movies with scary creatures in them, Steven Spielberg is happy to provide.
What do you think about this news? Are you excited that Edwards is returning? What would you want out of a Rebirth sequel? Let us know in the comments.
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