{"id":618840,"date":"2026-10-02T21:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T21:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/618840\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T21:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T21:54:08","slug":"the-jurassic-world-franchise-may-go-back-to-a-familiar-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/618840\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘Jurassic World’ Franchise May Go Back to a Familiar Director"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steven Spielberg made two Jurassic Park films. Colin Trevorrow made two Jurassic Park films. And now, a third director<\/a> could be joining that incredibly exclusive club. J.A. Bayona<\/a>, director of 2018\u2019s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom<\/a>, is reportedly at the top of Universal\u2019s wishlist to direct the sequel to Jurassic World Rebirth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gareth Edwards was expected to return for the sequel<\/a> to his 2025 hit, but left the project earlier this year<\/a> due to creative differences. That left a highly desirable director opening and, according to TheInSneider<\/a>, Universal executives think Bayona is the man for the job. Plus, it certainly helps that the team behind the Jurassic series, such as producers Steven Spielberg and Frank Marshall, have already seen Bayona take the franchise in a unique, successful direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you do a film like this you put yourself at the service of the story,\u201d Bayona told io9 back in 2018.<\/a> \u201cYou put yourself at the service of the legacy of the movies they did before. So it\u2019s not that I tried to hijack the Jurassic universe and change the mood and not be faithful of what\u2019s expected. You put your craft at the service of the world that has been established already by other directors.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that time, Bayona was directing the second film in a trilogy, which the Jurassic World Rebirth sequel could, potentially, be as well. Here\u2019s what he had to say about doing a middle Jurassic chapter back in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you think about a trilogy, the second episode is when things get more complicated and it\u2019s very exciting as a director,\u201d he said. \u201cYou pick up the repercussions of the first movie and you plant the seeds for the third one\u2026 You don\u2019t need to deal with the mess you are creating with this story.\u201d<\/p>\n

That to me sounds like a man who would very, very much like to be that Jurassic middle chapter yet again.<\/p>\n

Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali are all expected to come back for the sequel, which grossed about $340 million domestically and $869 million globally. Those are solid numbers, but not quite Jurassic-sized numbers, and you have to think Universal wants to get back to that. Is Bayona the right person? Time will tell.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out the best movies and TV shows<\/a> to stream this month and all the upcoming sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books<\/a> that should be on your radar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steven Spielberg made two Jurassic Park films. Colin Trevorrow made two Jurassic Park films. And now, a third…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,304723,278630,409,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-618840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-j-a-bayona","tag-jurassic-world-rebirth-2","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}