Jurassic World 4’s New Era Ignores One Post-Dominion Idea (& That’s A Very Good Thing)

Although Jurassic World 4 could bring back some supporting stars from Jurassic World: Dominion, there is no reason for the series to take this path. 2015’s Jurassic World was a reboot of the Jurassic Park franchise that brought back supporting characters like BD Wong’s Dr. Henry Wu, but mostly focused on new main characters. This allowed Jurassic World to get viewers invested in its heroes without relying entirely on fan nostalgia for the original trilogy. Its sequels abandoned this approach, with almost every major Jurassic Park character returning in Jurassic World: Dominion’s ending. Naturally, this gave the sequel a massive cast.

Not only did Jurassic World: Dominion have too many lead characters, but the returning cast’s nostalgic value and the central role of the new trilogy’s characters meant almost no one could be killed off. Fortunately, the upcoming reboot Jurassic World 4 can avoid this issue. Written by original Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp, Jurassic World 4 promises to be a “new era” for the franchise. None of the stars from either trilogy are expected to return for the fourth movie, which means Jurassic World 4 is poised to avoid one idea floated by Jurassic World: Dominion’s director Colin Trevorrow.

Jurassic World Dominion’s Director Said Its Supporting Stars Could Return

Colin Trevorrow proposed a future for Jurassic World: Dominion’s heroes

While Jurassic World 4’s new cast would solve the previous movie’s inability to kill off anyone, the director of Jurassic World: Dominion had a different vision for the future of the franchise. Speaking to Slashfilm, Trevorrow said Jurassic World: Dominion supporting characters like Kayla Watts, Ramsay Cole, and Soyona Santos could appear in Jurassic World 4 if the series continued. Instead, Koepp’s Jurassic World 4 reportedly marks a fresh start for the franchise, which is a better approach for two reasons. One is that, as outlined above, Jurassic World 4 can now kill off characters without upsetting long-time fans.

Another is that Jurassic World 4 bringing back characters from Jurassic World: Dominion would inevitably mean retaining the trilogy’s existing canon. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’s wild ending set dinosaurs loose on human civilization, changing the premise of the series, presumably for good. Jurassic World: Dominion took place in a world where dinosaurs and humans co-existed, so Jurassic World 4 can’t easily pick up where this story left off. If Koepp’s reboot is to recapture the tone of the original Jurassic Park, it must be a self-contained survival story rather than a speculative fiction epic about humans and dinosaurs coexisting simultaneously.

Why Jurassic World 4 Needs An All-New Cast

Bringing back the Jurassic World trilogy’s cast means keeping its canon

A stripped-back, simpler Jurassic World 4 can’t take place in the same universe as Jurassic World: Dominion. Jurassic World 4 must not focus on dinosaurs running free in the human world, since this was the plot detail that derailed the Jurassic World trilogy. As such, Jurassic World 4 can’t bring back the supporting characters of Jurassic World: Dominion as Trevorrow suggested. In the process, the movie would revive the storyline of Jurassic World: Dominion and get bogged down in existing canon. Jurassic World 4 must represent a clean break for the long-running series, even if it means losing these characters.