While a fourthJurassic Parkmovie was years in the making, with producerSteven Spielberggoing through a number of different permutations before settling on a take from director/co-writerColin Trevorrow, development onJurassic World 2has been much more swift. That’s partly becauseJurassic Worldscored $1.6 billion at the worldwide box office, but also Trevorrow and his co-writerDerek Connollydid the heavy lifting by creating new characters, new scenarios, and setting the franchise on a new path.
Trevorrow didn’t return to helm the currently untitledJurassic Worldsequel because he had already committed to developing and directingStar Wars: Episode IX, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been intimately involved in bringingJurassic World 2to the screen.A Monster CallsandThe ImpossiblefilmmakerJ.A. Bayonais directing, but on a recent appearance onJosh Horowitz’s HappySadConfused podcast, Trevorrow revealed that he’s actually been serving as the on-set writer forJurassic World 2in addition to co-writing the screenplay:
“Derek and I wrote for about the first eight months and then when he had to move on I kept going and I was actually the on-set writer on that movie. I would show up with my backpack every morning just like, ‘What do you need, sir?’ (laughs).”
But just because Trevorrow is involved in the screenwriting doesn’t meanJurassic World 2will be the same movie:
“It is thus far my favorite creative collaboration that I’ve ever been involved in in that J.A. Bayona is a completely different kind of filmmaker and thinker than I am, yet we do have a lot of things in common so I was able to craft something specifically for another filmmaker that I admire. I built a Spanish horror thriller with dinosaurs in it that I probably wouldn’t have built for myself.”
Moreover, Trevorrow goes so far as to say that he thinksJurassic World 2will be better than his own film:
“I gotta tell you man, I think that’s gonna be a better movie. I just do. It’s just deeper, it’s more character-based, it definitely leans into suspense especially in the second half. It does have the big action in the middle and there’s a sequence in the middle that I’ve been watching…I’ve started to see stuff come together and it’s just insane. I apologize to those who thought they were never gonna need to see anotherJurassic Worldmovie, because I think J.A. Bayona is gonna prove [them] wrong.”
Thematically the film is also set to explore new territory:
“It’s definitely about our greed and the depths of depravity that humans will sink in order to satisfy their need for profit. We’re certainly continuing with a lot of those themes but in different ways. But without spoiling anything there’s definitely new themes that have never been examined in a Jurassic movie before that we’ve gotten into that I really think will expand people’s idea of what these movies can be, that it’s not just people running away from dinosaurs on an island.”
The sequel recently gained a pretty tantalizing addition in the form ofJeff Goldblumreprising his role as Dr. Ian Malcolm fromJurassic ParkandThe Lost World: Jurassic Park, and while Trevorrow was tight-lipped on the character’s inclusion, he did say that he went back to the source material for some of his dialogue:
“I did rely on [Michael] Crichton for a lot of it. I used a lot of Crichton dialogue.”
Trevorrow is currently in the midst of the press tour forThe Book of Henry, his latest directorial effort, while also developing and writingEpisode IX. It sounds like he’s doing as much heavy lifting as he can onJurassic World 2now because when Bayona enters post-production, Trevorrow will be gearing up to start shootingEpisode IXin early 2018. At that point, the guy’s hands are gonna beincrediblyfull.
But for now, he makes a strong case for a dynamic, differentJurassic World 2. We’ll find out when the film hits theaters on July 10, 2025. Listen to the full podcast appearance over at HappySadConfused.
