Jurassic World Rebirth was one of the biggest 2025 movie releases at the box office, but following recent years of disappointment I’ve had about the series, I decided to skip out on going out to see it this summer. Now that it recently moved to streaming, I finally got the chance to watch it, and I have to say, it’s a lot better than I expected. I enjoyed how it included a lot of ingredients that made the original movie a classic, but also took some new turns with its storyline I hadn’t seen before. Because I watched it knowing a sequel is in development, I want to talk about what I’d want most out of a followup.
Earlier this month, a report came out that director Gareth Edwards is in “final negotiations” to helm another Jurassic World movie after Rebirth made $868.8 million worldwide after opening during 4th of July weekend. Here’s the main aspects from Rebirth I’d want to see continue in a sequel.
I Want To See Scarlett Johansson And Jonathan Bailey Lead It Again
Jurassic movies have been able to ride the line between being acclaimed and B-movie monster flicks thanks to the talented actors that have been a part of them for the past three decades. In terms of Rebirth, I found myself quickly getting invested in Scarlett Johansson’s Zora Bennett and Jonathan Bailey’s Dr. Henry Loomis.
I’ve always liked the kind of magic Johansson can bring to the movies she stars in, but I think she especially fits well into her role as a covert operation expert. She’s set up as someone who agrees to the Jurassic mission to earn the riches she’s promised, but as the story goes along, it’s made clear that she’s not someone without values and a heroic quality to her. I was particularly impressed because there are not enough female action characters like her who actually feel like a real person, and aren’t inundated with these random superpower-like skills that make them pretty inaccessible.
And then there’s Jonathan Bailey’s Henry, who proves to be a lot more than just slutty little glasses, with his memorable performance as a paleontologist, who is revealed to have studied under Dr. Alan Grant. Bailey’s character brought the “brains” and curious wonder of dinosaurs to Johansson’s “brawn.” Zora and Henry are well written because they can balance each other out in a digestible way for a two-hour movie, and their chemistry was definitely palpable. I’d be really curious to see them evolve as characters together as they go through more dinosaur-related trials in a sequel.
As a sidenote, I also thought Mahershala Ali was a great presence in the movie – perhaps a little underutilized. I’d love to see him round out the trio, especially if he’s given an expanded role as Duncan Kincaid.
I’m Still Interested In The Idea Of The World Getting Bored Of Dinosaurs
While I was initially not very interested by Rebirth after a mixed reception (including our two-star Jurassic World Rebirth review), when I ended up checking it out myself, one main concept of the film really made me sit up and pay attention. I’m talking about the fact that the movie takes place years after dinosaurs have been reintroduced into the population. Rather than the human race continuing to use dinosaurs as a point of theme park entertainment, they’ve collectively gotten bored of the previously extinct animals, and they’ve been mostly left alone to live in the tropics.
When Zora, Henry and company seek some dinosaurs out it’s in order to collect biomaterial within three of the species’ blood that could help cure cardiovascular disease. After much of the Jurassic World franchise focusing on the ways in which humans would react to the ability to bring back dinosaurs, I found it really interesting for the series to talk about the human race’s inherent tendency to get bored and take for granted new developments and technologies at a quick pace. I mean we live in a world where we can fly across the world, and there are self-driving cars, and it feels like we’ve already moved on from thinking about how amazing these inventions are, and as a society continue to be obsessed with what we haven’t figured out. Nothing is ever enough for us.
Rebirth ends with Zora and Henry having the biomaterials in hand, but I think there could be more to the story here. If a bunch of people are treated with dino DNA, there could certainly be some unintended consequences to the patients. And, what about more peril for the dinosaurs – such as mining them extensively for these materials if it does end up curing people.
I Want To See What Happens With Dolores
Lastly, I’m also quite invested in the sweet bond that takes place between Isabella Delgado and a baby dino named Dolores. By the end of the movie, the youngest Delgado family member takes Dolores out of her home to become her pet. Since Dolores is an Aquilops, which are small dinosaurs that are the size of a house cat or rabbit, the family doesn’t have to worry about Dolores getting any bigger, but I am worried about what the dino will do if they try to domesticate her.
We haven’t really seen this idea play out in a Jurassic movie, and I’d like to see more from Isabella and Dolores in a sequel. Not only does it intrigue me from a conceptual point of view, it also feels like a smart way for the series to have a little bit of Spielbergian E.T. vibes to it. We also don’t know if Dolores can survive outside the tropics, and I’m a little worried about that.
So, there are a lot of interesting threads for the sequel to use from here, and after the franchise has been mostly about theme park dinos, I’m really interested for the first time in a while. It’s nice to see Jurassic tackling new ideas rather than retreading too much, and I’m looking forward to what’s next.