There’s a moment in Steven Spielberg’s original Jurassic Park when Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler and Ian Malcolm see a living dinosaur for the first time – their mouths dropped wide open, joy and disbelief in their eyes, clearly witnessing the most astonishing, emotional thing they’ve ever seen. For long-time Jurassic fans, a similar reaction most likely awaits when Jurassic World Dominion finally arrives – reuniting Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum on the big screen for the first time since 1993, returning as their iconic characters for the third part of Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World trilogy.
For Trevorrow, getting the three of them back together was a major moment – and one he knew he had to share with the legendary filmmaker who united them in the first place. “The moment everybody shows up for the first time together, they’re all packed into a Jeep,” teases Trevorrow. “And I took a picture of it and I sent it to Steven [Spielberg]. He got very emotional. I don’t think even he was prepared for how moving it would be to see all of those characters that he loves, and people that he loves, looking incredible and on an adventure together.”
Alan, Ellie and Ian will be back alongside Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard’s Jurassic World duo Owen Grady and Claire Dearing – and according to the director, the film will be shared equally between both generations of Jurassic heroes. It’s a balancing act that benefited from the downtime production took during the pandemic. “A movie like this, with our legacy characters playing as large a role as our modern characters, it’s challenging to bring it all together in a way that has momentum, and also isn’t a five-hour-long movie," the director says. "It was nice to have the time to make sure that every character is honoured in the way that they need to be.” Who’s ready for an adventure 65 million and 29 years in the making?
Read Empire’s full Jurassic World: Dominion story in The Batman issue – on sale Thursday 23 December, and available to pre-order online here. Jurassic World: Dominion is due to be released in UK cinemas on 10 June 2022.