Wait, Jurassic World 3 Won't Be The End Of The Jurassic Park Franchise After All?

T-rex roaring in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

In 2015, the Jurassic Park franchise relaunched with Jurassic World, giving us out first taste of cinematic, dinosaur-packed action within this universe in over a decade. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom followed three years later, and next year the World trilogy will wrap up with Jurassic World: Dominion. However, don’t start thinking that this means the Jurassic Park film series as a whole is going away for good once Dominion has been released.

When recently asked if Jurassic World: Dominion has been envisioned as an endpoint for the Jurassic Park franchise, producer Frank Marshall responded with a resounding "No" and added:

It’s the start of a new era.

So there you have it. One chapter of the Jurassic Park franchise will come to an end when Jurassic World: Dominion in front of our eyeballs, but a new one will eventually be told down the line. What specifically will that new chapter contain? That’s hard to say, but Marshall also noted in his interview with Collider that with dinosaurs now running about alongside humans on the mainland, he hopes “they will be for quite some time.”

As those who saw Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom will remember, the movie revolved around as many dinosaurs being taken off Isla Nublar before a volcanic eruption destroyed the island. Those dinosaurs were transported to the Lockwood estate, and the movie ended with most of the prehistoric creatures being set free by Maisie Lockwood, while a handful were taken away by nefarious parties.

While The Lost World: Jurassic Park saw a T-rex briefly running loose in San Diego, that situation was quickly handled. The aftermath of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom can’t be bottled up nearly as easily, and humans will have to get used to this “new normal,” which we caught our first glimpse of in the short film Battle at Big Rock.

We’re still in the dark about what’s going down in Jurassic World: Dominion, but evidently when things are said and done, dinosaurs and humans will still be coexisting. In other words, don’t expect the next phase of the Jurassic Park franchise to begin at a dinosaur theme park like the 1993 original and Jurassic World did.

Of course, dinosaurs are only one half of the equation when thinking about the Jurassic Park franchise. There’s also the humans to consider, and in the Jurassic World era, we’ve been primarily following along with Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire Dearing. With Jurassic World: Dominion still intended to be the end of the World trilogy, does this mean Owen and Claire aren’t returning for the next film series, and we’ll instead follow along with a brand new cast of characters?

That’d be the logical assumption, but even if new characters are spotlighted in a new trilogy/sequence of films, that’s not to say we’d never see Owen and Claire again. After all, Jurassic World: Dominion is bringing back original Jurassic Park trio Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) and Ellie Satler (Laura Dern), so perhaps there will come a day when Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard’s characters also return to work with the new generation.

For now though, it’s unclear when the Jurassic Park franchise’s post-Dominion plans will be announced, but keep checking in with CinemaBlend for relevant updates. As for Jurassic World: Dominion, it’s still scheduled on June 11, 2021, but we’ll let you know if it ends up being delayed, like so many movies have been lately.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.