Jurassic Park's original trio will be in Jurassic World: Dominion 'all the way through' says Sam Neill

Jurassic World: Dominion, the third film in the new dino-series and director Colin Trevorrow's return to the franchise, won't be falling into the cameo trappings of Fallen Kingdom. While the film will feature the original Jurassic Park's three leads — Sam Neill's Alan Grant, Laura Dern's Ellie Sattler, and Jeff Goldblum's Ian Malcolm — it will apparently be in much bigger roles than in Goldblum's appearance in the previous film, which was isolated in a pair of bookended monologues.

And this news comes straight from one of these OG parkgoers. Speaking to Yahoo, Sam Neill explained that the trio won't be in a blink-and-you-miss-it, plot-irrelevant cameo. “We’re all the way through the film, Jeff [Goldblum], and me, and Laura [Dern]” Neill said, though he joked that he “probably won’t be running quite as fast as I was 27 years ago!”

In a film that's already bringing back an original character whose very unimportance was a joke in the Steven Spielberg original (Lewis Dodgson, replaced by actor Campbell Scott after original portrayer Cameron Thor was jailed for sexual assault), it should be bolstering news for franchise fans that the signing of these stars isn't simply facile fan service.

Neill also gave an update on the production, which has been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. He notes that in "about 10 days," he will be joining some more of the film's stars. “We’re all going to be living in the same joint for three or four months, so that’s going to be fun. And everybody loves Chris [Pratt] and Bryce [Dallas Howard] as well, so I think we’ll be a very happy bunch.”

The upcoming film also stars BD Wong, Daniella Pineda, Omar Sy, Justice Smith, Jake Johnson, Isabella Sermon, Mamoudou Athie, DeWanda Wise, Dichen Lachman, and Scott Haze — and still holds its initial premiere date of June 11, 2021.