Though he’s been elected at the helm of Star Wars: Episode IX, Colin Trevorrow remains an active cog in Universal’s trilogy plans for Jurassic World, attached to executive produce and co-write 2018 sequel Jurassic World 2 alongside Derek Connolly.
Considering that’s a creative pair that crafted a box office behemoth last year, it’s little wonder why Universal ensured that Trevorrow and Connolly remained on board to steer its rejuvenated series into the future only this time, it is Juan Antonio Bayona that’s been placed in the driving seat.
Bayona signed on to helm Jurassic World 2 soon after dropping out of another blockbuster sequel, World War Z 2. With a track record that comprises The Orphanage and, more recently, the excellent tear-jerker known as A Monster Calls, fans can look forward to Bayona tapping into his unique creative style – a process that will ensure Universal’s follow-up will be “more suspenseful and scary” than its monstrous forebear.
Dropping by Jurassic Park fan podcast InGeneral, it was Colin Trevorrow who turned in the endorsement, stating: “It will be more suspenseful and scary. It’s just the way it’s designed; it’s the way the story plays out. I knew I wanted Bayona to direct it long before anyone ever heard that was a possibility, so the whole thing was just built around his skillset.”
How scary, exactly, will be told in time, but this does align with something Trevorrow referred to in the past about how he considers Jurassic World 2 to be its own beast, possibly featuring a premise where dinosaur creation goes open-source, thus escaping the clutches of the nefarious InGen corporation. If that doesn’t sound scary, it should, and may well result in a man-made dino that would make even the Indominus Rex blush.
Jurassic World 2 is booked in to open on June 22, 2018.