With production on the sequel to Jurassic World set to get underway this February, director J.A. Bayona has been chatting to The Playlist about the scale of the fifth instalment of the dinosaur franchise – describing it as “way bigger” than the 2015 blockbuster – as well as touching upon what he plans to bring to the film.
“After doing The Impossible and A Monster Calls I said, ‘I want to have fun now. So, let’s do a dinosaur film with Steven Spielberg.’ It’s great, but at the same time it’s massive and way bigger than [the last] one. I think what is tricky about doing the fifth movie of a franchise is how will you bring in new stuff and still pay tribute to what we all know and the legacy of the film. So, it’s the balance between the new stuff and the old stuff. I think Colin Trevorrow did a great job in the first one finding the balance between what people are expecting and what people are being again.”
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“I was kind of surprised when [Trevorrow] pitched me the story because it leads the story to a place that we’ve never seen before and it brings some of the most important elements from the other films and makes something with them,” he continued. “I thought that was very interesting. It’s the second chapter of a trilogy so it gets the story to a place that wants you leaving more and more.”
The as yet untitled Jurassic World sequel is set for release on June 22nd, 2018 and will see Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard reprising their roles as Owen Grady and Claire Dearing alongside new additions Toby Jones (Captain America: The First Avenger), Rafe Spall (Black Mirror) and Justice Smith (The Get Down). BD Wong is also rumoured to returning as Dr. Heny Wu.
Originally published December 27, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
