Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom seems as conscious of living in the original Jurassic Park‘s shadow as Jurassic World did. That awesome first trailer showcased the original ‘hero’ T-Rex, now battle-scarred after tangling with Indominus Rex at the conclusion of the last film, and also gave us a glimpse at the return of Jeff Goldblum’s Dr. Ian Malcolm, the ‘rock star’ chaos theorist famous for realizing that life, uh, f-finds a… way?
Now, the rumor mill is saying that Malcolm and the Rex might not be the only familiar faces we’ll see in the film, as Mr. Sunday Movies, who has a good reputation for accuracy on these things, is reporting that Sam Neill is due to make a surprise appearance, with a source claiming that the actor was spotted arriving in a blacked out SUV on set.
We can surmise from the trailer that there’s some kind of debate on the legal status of the genetically engineered dinosaurs going on in the film, with the government trying to decide whether to rescue them from a soon-to-explode Isla Nublar. It appears that Ian Malcolm will give evidence during this debate and, as someone with paleontological knowledge and firsthand encounters with the dinos, who better to support him than Neill’s Dr. Alan Grant?
One small problem, though, is that Neill has been categorical that his dino-days are over. In an interview last year to promote Hunt for the Wilderpeople, he was asked whether he’d reprise the role, and said:
“I think the problem is that no one knows where Alan Grant is anymore. He’s retired from paleontology. He’s sick to death of dinosaurs and running. He’s not quite as fleet of foot as he was, and he’s now retired to Dayton, Ohio, and has a very successful accountancy business. I think that’s what’s happened to Alan. Either that or he’s dead.”
He went on to state:
“How do you recover from all of that stuff? I don’t think therapists are trained to deal with post-dino stuff. No. I don’t think you get over it. Accountancy would be one way. … No one can find Grant. He’s disappeared. Someone found his hat. His hat was floating on the Hudson river, but that was the last ever heard of him.”
It’s fair to say that Neill doesn’t sound super positive about the role, but who knows what a big sackful of money for a day’s shooting might do to a man’s resolve. Sam Neill is renowned as Hollywood’s prime wine-maker, after all, and a decent payday can buy an awful lot of plant food.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom will stop into theaters on June 22nd, 2018