Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous showrunner unpacks those OG Jurassic Park reveals and more

The third season of Netflix's Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous is in the books and there was a whole lot of synergy connecting this animated series with the original Jurassic Park trilogy and the ongoing Jurassic World trilogy. From familiar dinos to Hammond-era haunts, there was something for everyone as Darius (Paul-Mikél Williams) and his crew of surviving campers continued to look for a way off of Isla Nublar.

With this season's finale feeling like it could be a finish to the animated show's arc, SYFY WIRE got executive producer/showrunner Scott Kreamer on the phone to talk season specifics and if this might be the end of the campers' story.

This article contains spoilers for Season 3 of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.

Credit: Dreamworks Animation/Netflix

After the intensity of Season 2, what was your overall goal with the vibe of Season 3?

This season had some highs and some dark lows. But we definitely wanted to have some fun, especially when you've got these kids alone on an island. We don't know how much longer we're going to be with these kids on the island, so what are some fun things we want to do? What are some interesting things that, because of the storytelling before, we didn't get a chance to do? It opened up that for us.

There's a real sense of scope this season with the kids finding the old Jurassic Park area and even hang-gliding with attacking dinos.

I said last season that we went to all-new locations. We really do that this season. We go with some new dinosaurs. We just wanted to have fun with some of these action set pieces. They're all like little mini-movies. And we [wanted to] allude to some things that are in the second trilogy. From day one, we're trying to weave ourselves in and out of the canon.

We get to see Dimorphodons this season, which are terrifying. Why fold them in now?

I've always loved the Dimorphodons. I actually wanted to put them in Season 1, but as these things go, it's still a TV show. We don't have a limitless budget for this, and there's man or woman power needed to build these things. So, when the Pteranodons chased the kids to the underwater cave, I wanted it to be Pteranodons and Dimorphodons, but we couldn't do it. I always knew in the back of my head that as soon as we can, I want Dimorphodons. They are such freaky-looking things!

What was the impetus to bring Dr. Wu back into the narrative?

We knew that we were going to crossover with the beginning of Fallen Kingdom, so we started talking about that. What does that mean? We had a lot of fun with Wu previously, so the idea of bringing him back in, and name-checking Mills, or talking about the Indominus sample, I always liked that idea.

And then we started talking about how the Indominus Rex couldn't have been his first shot at this. And if you start following that path, how many failed attempts were there? How many things that he tried didn't work? And that's when we started the E750 of it all, where we planted those numbers back in the second season.

What's the backstory on the Scorpios Rex and why Wu didn't just erase it?

It made sense, to us, that it went bad, but also that he would have an attachment towards it because it was his first first foray into [making] a hybrid. And then there's the idea that if it's not cool or attractive, [Simon] Masrani is not going to want it in the park. And what effect does that have on Dr. Wu? You know, we saw him in Jurassic World not talking all that respectfully to Masrani. We know that he puts himself on a little bit of a pedestal, so what would that look like? And this is where we ended up.

What episodes this season were highlights for you?

Doing a foggy episode, where we really leaned into a horror movie, we haven't done that. I liked doing a Die Hard episode in an elevator shaft. It was super fun. Going back to Jurassic Park, too! But, if I've got to pick one, I love the episode with the kids at the camp when the Scorpious Rex attacks. Another great script. Everything came together. The Scorpios is so scary. I just love that episode.

The Jurassic Park environments look really accurate. Did you use assets from the original to build it or was it all made from scratch?

I could be wrong, but I think it's pretty much a recreation. Our design team really, really went the extra mile to get that kitchen to look the same as it did. It was really fun to stage something back in that iconic kitchen.

Let's talk about the very end with Darius on the yacht taking that mental picture. It's a grace note that feels like it could be a satisfying close to the whole story?

I will say that the idea for Darius to be looking back at Nublar was the original idea. As far as that whole thing with the clicking, as well as the previous scene when we introduced that concept, that was all our other executive producer, Aaron Hammersley. He took those scenes and he knew what we wanted to accomplish. He boarded those scenes and wrote those scenes basically taking what we had started with, and it just ended up being really, really nice.

And for the really invested fans, should they be isolating that audio in that last scene with the noises behind the door to try and establish what dino that might be?

[Laughs.] If anyone's got that kind of free time, I'm not gonna stop them. Good luck!

All episodes of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous are available now on Netflix.