Jurassic World Rebirth's Final Trailer Goes Full Horror With New Mutant Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs are back on the menu this summer as Universal Pictures is bringing us "Jurassic World Rebirth." With the release of the seventh entry in the long-running franchise now less than two months away, the studio has offered up a new look at director Gareth Edwards' take on the series in the form of a brand new, full-length trailer. It's jam-packed with dino action, as one might expect. Check it out for yourself above.

As we can see, several dinosaurs from the past are returning in this latest entry. The Spinosaurus is making its first appearance since 2001's "Jurassic Park III." And there's more than one! But these are different from the one we met all those many years ago on Site B. That's because this movie takes place at the research facility for the original Jurassic Park. That's allowing Edwards to keep things somewhat contained, as opposed to 2022's "Dominion" which saw dinosaurs all over the real world living alongside humans.

This new trailer also offers up some fresh footage of the new mutant dinosaur dubbed the Distortus Rex. While the notion of hybrid dinosaurs had been introduced previously in "Jurassic World," the notion of a mutant is again something new that is being offered up by this latest entry in the series. We've also got an entirely new cast headlined by Scarlett Johansson (Zora Bennett), Mahershala Ali (Duncan Kincaid), Rupert Friend (Martin Krebs), and Jonathan Bailey (Dr. Henry Loomis). 

Taking it all in, this seems like a major shift in tone from the previous trilogy. To put my cards on the table, I'll defend 2015's "Jurassic World" to the death, but "Dominion" is one of the most disappointing movies to me personally in the history of my relationship with cinema. So I was going into this latest entry with, at best, cautious optimism. This latest trailer has filled me with even more optimism, in no small part because of the major tone shift.

This new island that "Rebirth" takes place on looks like the island of misfit dinosaurs and that feels like an interesting idea. Do hybrid and mutant dinosaurs run the risk of jumping the shark? Absolutely, but it does make sense that John Hammond and his geneticists would have had to run experiments before they arrived at dinosaurs that were close to the real thing. The fact that many of those experiments survived is a way to introduce something scary to the series again, and is at least an attempt at something fresh.

It certainly doesn't hurt that Edwards previously directed "Godzilla" and "Rogue One." Nor does it hurt that David Koepp, who wrote the script for the original "Jurassic Park," returned to pen the screenplay for this installment. Fingers crossed, but it looks like Universal knew to keep the series alive, they'd have to change it up. Here's hoping it all comes together on screen.

"Jurassic World Rebirth" is set to hit theaters on July 2, 2025.