Sam Neill says he had a blast making ‘Jurassic World Dominion’

Fans old and new alike went positively nuts earlier this week when the first full-length trailer for Jurassic World Dominion arrived, so much so that nobody appeared to notice the third installment in the sequel series and sixth overall had dropped the colon that served The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom so well.

The footage showcased a brand new direction for the long-franchise, at least from a narrative point of view; no longer confined to theme parks or shady black market auctions, dinosaurs are now roaming the earth in complete and utter freedom, where they’ve obviously got designs on reclaiming top spot on the food chain.

Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire Dearing need to acquaint themselves with a trio of experts with plenty of experience dealing with prehistoric reptiles, and as you’d expect, most of the buzz for the Dominion trailer revolved around seeing Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum side-by-side on the big screen for the first time in almost 30 years.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Neill revealed what little he could about the movie, and outlined how much fun he had getting the band back together, and meeting the Jurassic universe’s new blood.

“Well, we had a blast. I was pleased to do it for a number of reasons. First of all, to be with my old friends Laura and Jeff, you know. We were — this was in the middle of the pandemic — we were locked up in a hotel together in somewhat idyllic rural England and everyone all got on really well. The new cast I liked very much; and the established Jurassic World cast, they’re just the nicest people. Bryce and Chris are absolute sweethearts.

Because we were so beleaguered by COVID at this point, we felt we were on our own brave enterprise in a way, and that brought us closer together than ever. It was really an unforgettable time and I’m very grateful for it. I haven’t seen the finished film yet. I’m sure it’s a very ambitious, huge story, a lot of characters, a lot of dinosaurs. It’s going to be unquestionably big, so they’ve been holding it back until hopefully cinemas are fully open and all that. It’s something that needs to be seen on a very big screen.”

The previous two installments combined to earn $3 billion at the box office, and there’s no reason why Jurassic World Dominion won’t continue the ten-figure hot streak, especially when it comes packing weaponized nostalgia.