With a record-breaking haul of $1.6 billion at the worldwide box office, the notion of a sequel to Colin Trevorrow’s monster mash went from wishful thinking to nigh on a certainty almost overnight, and we’ve now arrived at Jurassic World 2. Though the director himself is yet to commit to the follow-up beyond script duties – you can thank Star Wars: Episode XI for that – Trevorrow is still actively involved in the creative process, and the early idea that he and co-writer Derek Connolly have hatched is something that will take things “to the next level.”
Pushing for a bigger and bolder experience is hardly anything new when it comes to sequel territory, though as the filmmaker recounts in an interview with Jurassic Cast, this year’s box office juggernaut has laid the foundations to create a rich world brimming with stories. In fact, at one point Trevorrow refers to Universal’s rebooted franchise as a trilogy, with the next two installments at once set to develop the relationship between Claire and Owen (Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt, respectively) and the dinosaurs themselves.
Singing from the same hymn sheet as a separate interview from earlier in the year, Trevorrow seemingly wants to take the concept of dinosaur creation and switch it to open source, meaning that the nefarious InGen are no longer the gatekeepers of resurrecting – and indeed remixing – the apex predators of yesteryear.
“It’ll be a different kind of film,” he told Jurassic Cast. “And the audience has given us kind of permission to take this to the next level. And I don’t mean in scale. I feel very strongly that this is not ‘more dinosaurs’ or ‘bigger dinosaurs’, it’s about using this as a starting point to discover our relationship with these animals and with animals in general, and the dynamic that was created by bringing them back to life.”
Respecting the natural order was one of the main threads of Jurassic World earlier this year, typified by the age-old T-Rex besting the genetically-modified Indominus Rex – all with a little help from his dino friends – and it appears Trevorrow will look to continue that theme in the sequel. As for the returning Pratt and Dallas Howard, here’s what the director had to share on the follow-up’s human elements.
Owen is going to be in it, Claire is in it and neither are going to be in the same place we left them in the first movie. And even though Claire is the one who evolves the most over the trilogy, it’s her story that mirrors this changing world. Owen has shit to deal with. They’ve both opened Pandora’s Box in ‘Jurassic World’ and both of them are responsible for different elements of it.
Colin Trevorrow may not be behind the lens, but Jurassic World 2 is still primed to up the ante when Universal’s sequel graces theaters on June 22, 2018.