Jurassic World: Dominion Asks A "Single Question," And Tasty Humans Won't Like The Answer
"Jurassic World: Dominion" will conclude this new trilogy of legacy sequels to the original Steven Spielberg classic, and it sounds like it'll take the concept of dinosaurs living among humans to its most logical outcome. The actual quality of these movies (along with every sequel since "Jurassic Park", honestly) have been pretty much hit-or-miss, although the box office receipts would seem to suggest that audiences continue to crave their fix of big budget dinosaur mayhem. There aren't really any other options out there these days — unless you count those blink-and-miss-it dinosaurs during that one sequence in "Aquaman" — so "Dominion" will have to carry the weight of dino representation for now.
As with several other movies audiences are looking forward to, Universal held a special panel at CinemaCon to tease what they have up their sleeves. You can read all the details below.
Life Finds A Way?
If you've wondered what fresh insights this new trilogy of movies could possibly unearth that Spielberg hadn't already done back in 1993 with "Jurassic Park," you're very much not alone. After handing over the reins to Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona for "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom," Colin Trevorrow returns to directing duties with "Dominion" and is already ramping up the importance of this trilogy-capper. "Fallen Kingdom" ended with the dinosaurs from Isla Nublar, the location of the original "Jurassic Park," let loose onto the mainland after a volcano blew the island paradise to smithereens. (There was also a weird dinosaur auction and a pretty rad, Gothic-infused haunted house sequence somewhere in there too, but that's somewhat less important.) Now that dinosaurs and humans are bumping elbows out in the wild in "Dominion," Trevorrow appeared in a sizzle reel to explain that this film will answer one pressing concern:
"This movie asks a single question: if dinosaurs lived amongst us, would you be safe?
And the answer is no."
That ... kind of seems like a no-brainer, doesn't it? In fairness, I couldn't really tell you what else a third "Jurassic World" movie should be expected to focus on, but I'm not entirely convinced we needed an entire trilogy of build-up to answer whether, after all that we've seen in five prior movies, dinosaurs and humanity might actually get along somehow. Besides, true dinosaur aficionados know that this question was already answered emphatically with "Dinotopia," which showed a magical island where humans lived together with dinosaurs in peace (most of the time). The ABC miniseries might have been a little bizarre and frankly not very good, but I simply cannot stand idly by and watch crucial milestones in fictional dinosaur history be erased like this!
Jurassic World: Dominion Footage Descriptions
The "Jurassic World: Dominion" CinemaCon panel may have neglected to school attendees on the finer aspects of previous dinosaur media (shout-out to the BBC "Walking With Dinosaurs" specials, while we're at it!), but it at least delivered on actual teases for the upcoming blockbuster. According to Variety, the mostly behind-the-scenes featurette gave a first look at the return of the original trio of Sam Neill's Alan Grant, Laura Dern's Ellie Sattler, and Jeff Goldblum's Ian Malcolm. Importantly, Variety notes that Dern's classic pink shirt and khaki shorts look is getting "a sophisticated update."
The sizzle reel started with a never-before-released clip of Spielberg on the set of "Jurassic Park," discussing the cane belonging to Richard Attenborough's John Hammond that held a piece of fossilized amber with a mosquito inside. As explained in the first film, mosquitoes provided the key to cloning dinosaur DNA and making the park possible in the first place and, based on the "Dominion" teaser poster as well as the IMAX first-look footage, it appears to play a large role in this film as well.
Comic Book (via IGN) has even more details on the CinemaCon footage, which featured returning cast members Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard reminiscing about the original film. As Dallas puts it, "I cried the first time I saw dinosaurs" and Trevorrow promises that "Dominion" will be "...a celebration of the franchise. It concludes a story that Stephen Spielberg started in 1993." These quotes and interview soundbites are interspersed with footage of returning creatures like the mosasaur (the ocean reptile seen both in "Jurassic World" and again early on in "Fallen Kingdom"), dinosaurs loose in a city, velociraptors, and the entire cast of originals and new faces coming face-to-face with the T-Rex.
"Jurassic World: Dominion" is set for release on June 10, 2022.