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Why Didn't Tim and Lex Return for Jurassic World Dominion? Colin Trevorrow Explains Their Absence
Long story short...there just wasn't enough time.
The Jurassic fandom understandably lost its dang mind back in September of 2019 when news broke that Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum would reprise their beloved characters for the third Jurassic World movie (aka Dominion).
Director Colin Trevorrow's goal was simple: bridge the old to the new by having the OG trio of Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, and Ian Malcolm team up with the new generation of heroes, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), and Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon). But even with a two-and-a-half hour runtime, compromises had to be made, which meant excluding John Hammond's grandchildren, Tim (Joseph Mazzello) and Lex (Ariana Richards), from the blockbuster proceedings.
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"Every one of these characters takes up so much oxygen in every room they step into that we really needed to be careful and thoughtful. I’ve always tried to keep a good sense of when it would start to feel like a Love Boat episode or something. Where it’s just like, 'Who’s the special guest in this scene?'" Trevorrow, who wrote Dominion's screenplay with Emily Carmichael, explained during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last summer.
Trevorrow continued: "And we have five characters [counting Lewis Dodgson] from Jurassic Park. BD Wong has been in all three of these movies, and he’s a major character in this film. And so when you’re looking at a movie like Jurassic Park, which probably had a total of eight characters and five of them are in this movie, that actually is a lot."
The Murphy siblings last appeared via cameo in the first act of The Lost World: Jurassic Park when Ian Malcolm visits an ailing John Hammond (Richard Attenborough). What they've been up to since then is anyone's guess, but given their incredibly close brush with death three decades ago, something tells us they've chosen paths that took them far away from the realm of prehistory.
RELATED: Stream the Original Jurassic Park Trilogy on Peacock For Franchise's 30th Anniversary
Speaking with SYFY WIRE over Zoom for the 30th anniversary of the original film, actor Whit Hertford (the "6-foot turkey kid" scared by Alan Grant) teased about his disappointment over the fact that the new trilogy failed to bring back any of the child stars.
"I think he's ageist because if you realize, none of the kids from the first film are in the new ones," he jokingly said of Trevorrow. "I don't know if that's a studio directive because Joe Mazzello is a fine actor, who’s continued going; and Ariana, she’s alive. I'm alive. I haven't retired. So I don't know. It's very precarious to me that you're bringing back BD Wong and other people, but you're not bringing back Wayne Knight? I mean, I know he dies, but like, is there something in it for the kids?"
Jurassic Park is now streaming on Peacock along with The Lost World, Jurassic Park III, and Jurassic World. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World Dominion are available to purchase from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
