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Colin Trevorrow says 'Dominion' is not the end of the 'Jurassic' franchise: 'There's more to come'
Simply put, the Jurassic IP is not going extinct anytime soon.
Last week, Jurassic World Dominion crossed the $1 billion-mark at the global box office, proving that the dino-centric franchise is still a theatrical juggernaut almost three decades after Jurassic Park. Simply put, the Jurassic IP cannot be allowed to go extinct anytime soon, and while Dominion was marketed as the end of the saga, Colin Trevorrow begs to differ. While chatting with Empire for the magazine's November 2022 issue (now on sale), the writer-director admitted that the promotional materials for the film caught him off guard.
"Those guys are brilliant at what they do, but for me, I think it might have been clearer if they'd said, 'The end of an era,' as opposed to all of it," he said. "Because regardless of the cynical approach — of course, they're gonna want to make more money, which is what Jurassic World was about — a new dinosaur fan is born every day. Kids deserve these movies, and young filmmakers grow up on these stories — much like Peter Pan and The Wizard of Oz, and worlds we've returned to constantly."
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Trevorrow then went on to reveal that he has engaged in early conversations with Universal about subsequent projects, which could very well center around brand-new characters like intrepid pilot Kayla Watts (DeWanda Wise), ex-Biosyn employee Ramsay Cole (Mamoudou Athie), or black marketeer Soyona Santos (Dichen Lachman).
"This movie clearly takes a real interest in creating new characters that a new generation is going to latch on to," the director said, later adding: "There's more to come. What I get fired up about is, if a table has been set here for another mind to do what I did with Steven [Spielberg] and sit down and say, 'Listen, I've got an idea.' I would love for that person to sit with me, or Steven, and just be like, 'I got it!'"
With Isla Nublar totally destroyed in Fallen Kingdom, the next installment can dive headlong into the intriguing possibilities of a world overrun by prehistoric monsters that vanished off the face the planet 66 million years ago. "For this franchise to be able to move forward ... if we're gonna do it, how can I allow them to tell stories in a world in which dinosaurs exist, as opposed to, 'Here's another reason why we're going to an island'?"
The prospect of closing out a multi-billion dollar blockbuster trilogy might have caused another storyteller to break out in a cold sweat of anxiety, but luckily for Trevorrow, he already had experience from his time spent on the Skywalker Saga. Despite the fact that his vision for Episode IX was never fully realized onscreen, he doesn't regret his time with Lucasfilm (the filmmaker parted ways with the Star Wars production banner in 2017).
"I got a graduate degree in telling the end of a trilogy based on a larger set of movies that we love, and then I had to go do it again," he continued. "I applied the same values to both [films]. Essentially, I want these legacy characters to be integrated organically and feel genuinely part of the adventure. I don't want to hold the thing I love so tightly that I suffocate it. And I need to allow myself to push forward and do something new, but without abandoning the values of what made it so in the first place."
Jurassic World Dominion is now available on Peacock, Digital, VOD, Blu-Ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD.
