“It goes back to what I loved about the original, with an embarrassment of riches of different set-piece-type scenarios and tense, fun action moments. There were a lot of opportunities as a filmmaker to have a lot of fun and try and play games with the audience,” Jurassic World: Rebirth director Gareth Edwards tells Empire. He shared more about the film, alongside a brand new still of Scarlett Johansson‘s covert operations expert Zora Bennett, in their January 2025 Preview issue, out November 21st.
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The Jurassic franchise has been through all kinds of evolutions already. There was Spielberg’s classic original Jurassic Park, which led to The Lost World and Jurassic Park III. And then in 2015 began the Jurassic World trilogy, giving us a fully-fledged dinosaur theme park before letting the pre-historic beasts loose on the world. Now, Jurassic is about to be reborn – quite literally, with Jurassic World Rebirth ready to bare its teeth. This time, Godzilla and Monsters director Gareth Edwards is putting his scaly-beast expertise to good use, working from a script by original Park scribe David Koepp – ready to take the saga back to the source.
“It goes back to what I loved about the original,” Edwards tells Empire in our Andor Season 2 issue, “with an embarrassment of riches of different set-piece-type scenarios and tense, fun action moments. There were a lot of opportunities as a filmmaker to have a lot of fun and try and play games with the audience.” Set give years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, it continues the dinos-in-the-wild premise established across that trilogy, while beginning “a whole new chapter in the timeline of Jurassic”.
While it’ll be packed with prehistoric beasts (“there are certain dinosaurs it would be a crime against cinema not to include,” notes Edwards), the new human lead is Scarlett Johansson – whose operative Zora Bennett is leading an epic dino-DNA hunt. “She’s looking for meaning in her life after leaving the military,” Edwards teases of her role, “and this opportunity comes along where [after it] basically she’d never have to work again. But through that journey, she starts to question the ethical rights and wrongs of what they’re doing.” You’re saying she was so preoccupied with whether or not she could, she didn’t stop to think if she should? Buckle up for some classic Jurassic.
Read more about Jurassic World Rebirth in Empire’s Ultimate 2025 Preview, led by Andor Season 2 – in the January 2025 issue. Pre-order a copy online here. Jurassic World Rebirth comes to UK cinemas in July.
EXCLUSIVE 🦖#JurassicWorldRebirth “goes back to what I loved about the original”, Gareth Edwards tells Empire.
— Empire (@empiremagazine) November 15, 2024
READ MORE: https://t.co/bdpunysirc pic.twitter.com/tTNhfnaH08
The new image of Scarlett Johansson’s Zora Bennett appears to be in the same location or a similar one to the previously shared set photo above. It could even be the same scene with Jonathan Bailey’s Dr. Loomis, as Zora appears in her ex-military operation attire and is wielding some kind of large combination of a weapon and dino-DNA extraction syringe. What is this location, and how will this weapon/tool be used? The location itself and the lighting and colors present are excellent and feel quite in-line with Jurassic. According to director Gareth Edwards, Bennett is “looking for meaning in her life after leaving the military, and this opportunity comes along where [after it] basically she’d never have to work again. But through that journey, she starts to question the ethical rights and wrongs of what they’re doing.” This brings interesting depth to her character within the Jurassic world, but what could it also mean for the larger story of Jurassic World: Rebirth?
Edwards also stated that “it’ll be packed with prehistoric beasts (there are certain dinosaurs it would be a crime against cinema not to include,” and that “it goes back to what I loved about the original.” With a new director on board, David Koepp bringing a fresh writing perspective after time away from the franchise, and new star-power embarking on adventures in very Jurassic environments, we could be headed towards a very exciting rebirth for the Jurassic franchise. What dinosaurs will we see, and what dino-DNA are we after – and why? What is the dynamic between humans and dinosaurs as we traverse the globe with Dr. Henry Loomis, Duncan Kincaid, and Martin Krebs on Zora Bennett’s operation? How does it all connect to the “sinister, shocking discovery that has been hidden from the world for decades”?
Jurassic World: Rebirth – in theaters July 2, 2025.
