{"id":389779,"date":"2026-01-03T21:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T21:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/389779\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T21:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T21:50:08","slug":"chaos-theory-team-relives-final-dino-battle-and-giving-the-franchise-its-needle-moving-disability-representation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/389779\/","title":{"rendered":"Chaos Theory\u2019 Team Relives Final Dino Battle and Giving the Franchise Its Needle-Moving Disability Representation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t[This story contains spoilers from\u00a0Jurassic World: Chaos Theory\u00a0series finale.]<\/p>\n

\n\tUnlike other animated, kid-friendly franchise spinoffs, Jurassic World: Chaos Theory isn\u2019t a cute-but-unessential extension of its live-action blockbuster counterparts. The series, a follow-up to 2020\u2019s Camp Cretaceous, exists in the same universe as the Steven Spielberg<\/a>, Colin Trevorrow and Frank Marshall-produced trilogy, taking viewers to some of the same places even at the same time as the big screen adventures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth were true for Chaos Theory\u2019s final season, which dropped its leading group of teens directly into the timeline of Dominion. Their return to the small screen \u2014 which concluded on Nov. 20 with the release of season four<\/a> on Netflix \u2014 allowed the series and its six young adult leads to go to corners of the Biosyn Valley audiences won\u2019t see in the third installment of Trevorrow\u2019s live-action films.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThen you have that whole velociraptor training,\u201d says art director JP Balmet. \u201cWe really looked at the movie, at those hallways and how you get down to the locust area, and asked what other stuff could be in this place that we hadn\u2019t seen. What doors weren\u2019t open?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s not just the settings that expanded the Jurassic World sequel trilogy either. A plot twist tied to a character\u2019s faked death and reemergence with a limb difference produced something that wasn\u2019t possible even in the Chris Pratt<\/a>-led films. \u201cColin told us after he saw it, \u2018Wow, you did something that none of the features could do. You had one of our heroes sustain a serious injury,\u2019\u201d recalls Executive Producer Scott Kreamer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the fourth and final season, members of the Chaos Theory team spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about how they paid tribute to \u2014 and kept on expanding \u2014 their big screen universe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tDelivering a Disabled Lead to the Jurassic World Universe\t<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Kreamer was first developing his pitch for Chaos Theory, he knew two things: First, Brooklynn was never actually dead. Second, he expected her Camp Cretaceous voice actor, Jenna Ortega<\/a>, to return. What he didn\u2019t know was how they\u2019d bring Brooklynn back \u2014 or that Ortega was no longer available. \u201cSilly me,\u201d recalls the co-showrunner and EP. \u201cI talked to head of casting Ania [O\u2019Hare], and went, \u2018Well, maybe.\u2019 She goes, \u2018You turn on the TV and tell me how many times you see her.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOrtega\u2019s shot to global stardom thanks to a different Netflix series (Wednesday) led the team to recast Brooklynn\u2019s voice actor, paving the way for the hiring of Kiersten Kelly, a newcomer with congenital trans-radial absence. \u201cIf at all possible, we wanted to hire someone with a limb difference, but not at the expense of performance,\u201d says Kreamer. \u201cSo we had castings with many people, some with limb differences, some without. There was a groundedness and an authenticity in Kiersten\u2019s performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to voice work, Kelly would assist the show\u2019s art and animation teams, providing video references and offering thoughts on Brooklynn\u2019s animatics that Kreamer put in front of her, \u201cany chance we got,\u201d he says. The writing and animation departments also turned to scribe Peter Lee, whose hiring was the result of a series of panels organized by Disability Belongs, featuring a small group of consultants with congenital or acquired limb differences. Over several conversations, they answered \u201cquestions about daily life with a limb difference and, more specifically, the physical and emotional process of recovering from traumatic limb loss,\u201d says Lee. It would lead to tweaks in things like Brooklynn\u2019s injury scar, the addition of a zipper on her shoes, and the fit of her prosthetic.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe show also made adjustments to the kind of limb loss Brooklyn experienced, initially imagined as above the elbow for animation reasons. But to have a whole arm replacement and its respective prosthesis, Brooklynn needed to wear a weighty harness, restricting quick movement and certain kinds of action. \u201cWe had this idea that she gets this bionic arm,\u201d Balmet recalls. \u201cSomeone spoke up and said this was something they didn\u2019t like. [Limb loss is] something you have to adapt to, and becomes a major part of your life. You give them this bionic arm, and it\u2019s like an easy solve.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA consultant showed the team their below-the-elbow prosthetic, highlighting increased mobility. \u201cShe can be an action star with that kind of limb difference,\u201d the art director recalls being told. \u201cAnother thing that came from those meetings was that a lot of this prosthetic stuff is for other people. People with limb differences while in the house don\u2019t need or use it. We had to get people comfortable with the idea of Brooklynn without her prosthetic. Some weren\u2019t used to it, weren\u2019t sure what to do with the exposed limb. But we ended up leaning into it because we realized that was our problem, that wasn\u2019t the problem of someone with a limb difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn TV or film, you never really get an inkling of how people\u2019s prosthetics, chairs or whatever their device is become a part of who they are, and you don\u2019t understand that those things are a tool that they use to get through the day,\u201d Lee says. \u201cSo to see her without her prosthetic, and struggling to understand what it means to wear or not wear it \u2014 to accept it \u2014 those were super important things to show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLee would be part of all those panel discussions, and while the Chaos Theory team didn\u2019t initially know he was a writer, Disability Belongs facilitated the submission of a spec script, with his panel contributions serving as his unintentional pitch for Brooklynn\u2019s arc. He was hired through the show\u2019s freelance budget, and wrote three episodes total, with Story Editor Bethany Armstrong Johnson noting \u201cif we had had a bigger budget, we would have loved to have had him on full-time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe very easily included him in meetings, story breaks \u2014 just the whole creative process from the writing side, but also from the art side,\u201d the head writer recalls. \u201cIt is weird because there can be a perceived difficulty or cost [of bringing on a disabled writer], but there\u2019s a cost in anything anybody does. People will make these adjustments in their time or space for other things. This felt like a necessity, so we were going to figure out how to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tInitially assigned season two\u2019s flashback heavy \u201cC13v3rGr186,\u201d Lee sped through the two animated series to \u201cdictate how Brooklyn would organically respond\u201d to the dinosaur attack \u2014 a plot development that came from Supervising Producer Zesung Kang. \u201cNot only did it make sense within the story, not only did it raise the stakes, but then we had an opportunity to showcase a character from a community that\u2019s about 25% of the actual population,\u201d Kreamer tells THR.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHer acquired limb difference informs her character, but it doesn\u2019t define her character,\u201d he continues. \u201cHer journey sees a lot of questionable decision-making, which we wanted to have set in motion before the limb difference, so it wasn\u2019t like, \u2018Now she\u2019s evil because she\u2019s got a limb difference,\u2019 or \u2018Now she\u2019s superpowered.\u2019 We didn\u2019t want to \u2018how brave to overcome\u2019 her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKreamer also points to an initial uncomfortable interaction between Brooklyn and fellow \u201cNublar Six\u201d member Ben (Sean Giambrone) after he discovers both she\u2019s alive and experienced Brooklyn\u2019s limb loss as another way they team wanted \u201cto tell that truth\u201d through Brooklyn\u2019s story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI shared my personal experiences with those things, and that informed part of how we handled that in the show. After I lost my arm, strangers just thought that\u2019s who I was, as opposed to me having to explain myself [to people I knew before], and having to navigate their emotional journey on top of whatever else I was doing,\u201d Lee says. \u201cThe kind of loss that she experiences, the relationship dynamics that she has to navigate, her coming to a new understanding of who she is, and meandering off the right path for a while, all those things were things that I talked about from my own personal experiences. But they are universal experiences, too. We all go through losses and changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAdded Lee; \u201cWe never tried to take the easy way out; to say, \u2018Let\u2019s not deal with that because this is an animated show, and, ostensibly, for kids. She found her way to this place of maturation and becoming who she is. It\u2019s a coming of age story and I love that for her.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tA Fearsome Farewell to Chaos Theory\u2019s Dinosaurs\t<\/p>\n

\n\tAcross four seasons, Brooklyn was part of how the Chaos Theory team pushed the boundaries of storytelling within the Jurassic World universe. But they also delivered their own spin on the sense of awe, wonder \u2014 and horror \u2014 of the franchise\u2019s biggest stars: the dinosaurs. To do that, Balmet and Lighting & Compositing Supervisor Eric Hawkins turned to cinematographers from the original Jurassic Park<\/a> films, their libraries, and Dominion as references, with John Carpenter, as well as Terrence Malick\u2019s Badlands and The Tree of Life, inspiring the animated series visuals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen Ben sees [ankylosaurus] Bumpy for the first time, and it\u2019s that pretty sunset, that\u2019s the stuff that we were looking at to try to get an emotional response. A big sunset makes you feel like the world is worth living in,\u201d Balmet explains. \u201cIn the hallways of the underground lab in Senegal, when the blind Baryonyx was running around, it was a little bit more Silent Hill or Jacob\u2019s Ladder. This place is where bad things happen. We wanted you to really feel like they were in danger, so we put in that lighting, that texture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the final season of the DreamWorks Animation Television installment, the team continued that approach to animating the theratinosaurus and the quetzalcoatlus \u2014 \u201cthe two biggest rigs and designs we\u2019ve ever had,\u201d says Kreamer. The show received materials from Industry Light & Magic, who worked on the live-action films, and among multiple departments, made slight adaptations to Dominion\u2019s existing dinosaur designs for their animated medium, while trying to remain \u201caccurate to what they had already put on screen,\u201d says Balmet.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c[Visual Development Artist] Chris Sears, in particular, was really smart about the way that he sculpted the body [of the quetzalcoatlus], so it feels furrier than it is. We didn\u2019t have to put as much simulated fur, and we could focus on its cool Mohawk,\u201d he explains of the furry, winged dinosaur that was the size of a car.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe therizinosaurus would deliver one of the season\u2019s most memorable scares, in a sequence that sees the creature tracking the Camp Crew to a Biosyn Valley veterinary clinic as they attempt to escape a raging fire. Kreamer credits Hawkins, Armstrong Johnson, Kang, the show\u2019s directors, artists, and composer Leo Birenberg\u2019s score for helping \u201cput the audience in the same headspace as these kids who are fighting for their lives,\u201d he tells THR.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe therizinosaurus claw that swipes across the window was a conscious choice,\u201d adds Balmet, while pointing to Hawkins\u2019 work. \u201cWe wanted to have this flickering firelight in the background that\u2019s there, so you feel like it\u2019s closing in. And we were thinking, if you can see outside, why wouldn\u2019t you see the shadow of it lurking nearby? Then someone had the idea of putting the claw in. That was something that we hadn\u2019t seen in the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYet season four\u2019s most captivating moment arguably came from what CG Animation Director Ryan Donoghue calls the grand farewell to Chaos Theory\u2019s dinosaur ensemble \u2014 a battle staged outside that clinic featuring three tyrannosaurus rexes and five junior velociraptors. \u2018<\/p>\n

\n\tHe and the show\u2019s overseas animation studio CGCG were particular about depicting the dinosaurs, particularly their weight, throughout the clash, because \u201cif they move too fast or they don\u2019t have the right step, then the action doesn\u2019t hold up\u201d in terms of believability, he tells THR. \u201cWhen the main Rexy is down, and then the two juvenile Rexes run up, they\u2019re kind of emotional. You see them bounding up and kind of into each other. They\u2019re not predatory and in control. In that moment, they\u2019re a wild, almost herd \u2014 an unstoppable force.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the sequence, both groups of dinos essentially form up into lines, but Donoghue notes that it \u201cwas a tricky moment because\u2026 at first it looked like West Side Story.\u201d To avoid the dinosaurs \u201cacting\u201d like a football team\u2019s offensive line and thus anthropomorphizing them (versus portraying them as instinctual, \u201cunpredictable\u201d creatures), the CG animation director changed the raptors\u2019 positions so they naturally stopped in the middle of something.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe way we slow [the T. rexes] in is that they start to assess the situation. The story isn\u2019t about them running up, going \u2018We\u2019re going to fight.\u2019 They\u2019re like, \u2018What are you doing here? What are you doing to our friend?\u2019\u201d Donoghue says. \u201cBecause the raptors are taken by surprise, they just kind of wait, confused for a second, and that\u2019s what gives time for our main Rexy to stand up slowly and ominously, get back on her feet, and start to dominate the scene. And that\u2019s when all hell breaks loose.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a sequence made even more dynamic thanks to Hawkins. \u201cWhen you have that rain-lit night with the fire, and you get the bounce light off of the dinosaurs with the warm light that\u2019s coming in from an outside source, it\u2019s so scary and so dramatic,\u201d Donoghue says. \u201cWhen you think about CG series, TV can be hard to get real atmosphere, where you feel like you\u2019re in a place, and Eric, with how he adds that emotional depth to the shots, through how he lights, it gives us all this atmosphere. It\u2019s the secret sauce that really helps tie everything together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[This story contains spoilers from\u00a0Jurassic World: Chaos Theory\u00a0series finale.] Unlike other animated, kid-friendly franchise spinoffs, Jurassic World: Chaos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,15295,134,34832,20754,344,10492],"class_list":{"0":"post-389779","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-chris-pratt","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-jenna-ortega","13":"tag-jurassic-park","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-steven-spielberg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}