I still can’t believe that Jurassic World was the smash hit that it was. The reboot of the Jurassic Park franchise had some interesting ideas hovering around the surface but lacked depth to its spectacle and leaned so heavily on nostalgia instead of forging its own path. Now A Monster Calls director J.A. Bayona takes over for Colin Trevorrow (who co-wrote the screenplay with Derek Connolly) for the sequel Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
The final trailer for Fallen Kingdom has landed today and it’s, well, it looks very different than the movie being sold in the first trailers for the dino-sequel. One thing that has remained a constant in the trailers for Fallen Kingdom is that Blue the Raptor, whom Chris Pratt‘s rugged Owen Grady raised since his Jurassic infancy, is the real star of the movie. Who knew that fans of Jurassic World cared so damn much about a single raptor? Owen is reunited with Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Harper), who I assume isn’t wearing heels this time, in order to save Blue and various other dinos after a bunch of evil scientists want to turn them into weapons or something — I mean, this was part of the plot of the last film. Previous trailers teased the island blowing up and that’s not even mentioned this time around, so who knows what Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is about?
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is mostly generating interest because Jeff Goldblum is returning as Dr. Ian Malcom, reprising his role from the first two Jurassic Park films. Also returning is B.D. Wong as Dr. Henry Wu, who I guess is a villain now. Rounding out the cast is Rafe Spall, James Cromwell, and Toby Jones.
The park is open and possibly exploding when J.A. Bayona’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom lands in theaters on June 22, 2018.
The official synopsis for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom:
It’s been four years since theme park and luxury resort Jurassic World was destroyed by dinosaurs out of containment. Isla Nublar now sits abandoned by humans while the surviving dinosaurs fend for themselves in the jungles.
When the island’s dormant volcano begins roaring to life, Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) mount a campaign to rescue the remaining dinosaurs from this extinction-level event. Owen is driven to find Blue, his lead raptor who’s still missing in the wild, and Claire has grown a respect for these creatures she now makes her mission. Arriving on the unstable island as lava begins raining down, their expedition uncovers a conspiracy that could return our entire planet to a perilous order not seen since prehistoric times.
