Jurassic World 3now has a director, and it’s not exactly a huge surprise. While aJurassic Parkreboot was in the works for years, it finally came to fruition with 2015’sJurassic Worldto box office record-smashing results.Steven Spielberghad a strong hand in the crafting of that film, especially when it came to choosing a director. Indeed,Colin Trevorrowwas handpicked to breathe new life into the franchise based on the strength of his Sundance indieSafety Not Guaranteed, and while critics were a bit muted to the final product, audiences flocked toJurassic Worldin droves.
Universal quickly greenlit a sequel, but Trevorrow was busy elsewhere soJ.A. Bayona(A Monster Calls) signed on to direct this summer’sJurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. But now Trevorrow is back, as Spielebrg confirmed toEWthat Trevorrow is writing and directingJurassic World 3.
This both is and isn’t a surprise. The reason Trevorrow didn’t directFallen Kingdomwas because afterJurassic World, Lucasfilm signed him to close out the newStar Warstrilogy by directingStar Wars: Episode IX. But last fall, in the wake of Trevorrow’s box office bombThe Book of Henry—which also received some of the most scathing reviews in recent memory—Lucasfilm parted ways with Trevorrow. To be fair the decision likely wasn’tonlybased onBook of Henryas it was reported that Trevorrow had been having creative disagreements with Lucasfilm over theStar Warsscript for some time, butBook of Henrywas a very disappointing follow-up to a film as huge asJurassic World, so folks were curious to see what Trevorrow would do next.
The filmmaker was intimately involved inJurassic World 2even if he didn’t direct, returning to co-write the script withDerek Connollyand serving as hands-on producer while Bayona brought his own visual flair to the sequel. It was announced last month thatJurassic World 3was on track to hit theaterson August 02, 2025, with Trevorrow co-writing the script alongsideEmily Carmichael(Pacific Rim Uprising), and now the film is very much in line hit that release date with Trevorrow back in the director’s chair.
It’s actually a bit ironic, asThe Force AwakensdirectorJ.J. Abramstook over Trevorrow’s duties onEpisode IXto close out that trilogy after handing the reigns toRian JohnsonforThe Last Jedi, and now Trevorrow is returning to his own rebooted franchise to bookend that series. If it wasn’t clear before, Spielberg has very much passed theJurassic Parkbaton to Trevorrow, who now seems to be the main architect of this new franchise.
For what it’s worth, Trevorrowmapped out a three-movie arcway back when he was makingJurassic World:
“Yes, absolutely … I knew where I wanted it to go. I remember telling Steven [Spielberg] even while we were still making the first movie, “This is the beginning. Here is the middle. And here’s the end of the end. This is where we want to go. I feel like that kind of design is crucial to a franchise like this if you really want to bring people along with you and make sure they stay interested. It needs to be thought through on that level. It can’t be arbitrary, especially if we want to turn this into a character-based franchise with people who you lean in to follow what they’re going to do.
“At the end of this movie, it’s not a cliffhanger, but it’s designed for people who want to know what’s going to happen next, whereas the earlier Jurassic Park movies had pretty clear definitive endings. They were pretty much episodic. In working with Derek Connolly, my co-writer, we were also thinking about where it was going to go in the future.”
So whileBook of Henrywas certainly a disappointment, and losingStar Warswas probably not fun, Trevorrow’s doing fine. It’ll be interesting to see how audiences respond toFallen Kingdomthis summer, how closely the film will come to matching the $1.6 billion gross of the 2015 rebootquel, and ifFallen Kingdomwillprove me wrong about the franchise as a whole, but clearly Universal and Spielberg have a lot of faith in Trevorrow’s vision for this series.
