Warning: SPOILERS for Jurassic World Dominion
Lex (Ariana Richards) and Tim (Joseph Mazzello), the Murphy siblings from Jurassic Park, don’t appear in Jurassic World Dominion, and while the reasons why make sense, their absence is still disappointing. Dominion is both the end of Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World trilogy and it also concludes the six-movie saga that began with Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park in 1993. Jurassic World Dominion sees the return of Jurassic Park’s icons, Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), who team up with Jurassic World’s heroes, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), and Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon). Sadly, Lex and Tim don’t get to join the Jurassic reunion.
Lex and Tim Murphy, the grandchildren of Jurassic Park’s misguided visionary, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), were created by author Michael Crichton and appeared in his Jurassic Park book before joining Spielberg’s movie adaptation. Interestingly, in the novel, Tim was the older sibling and Lex was about 6. Spielberg’s film reversed their ages, making Lex a tween computer hacker and Tim the younger dinosaur expert who idolized Dr. Alan Grant. Lex and Tim get trapped in the park with Alan and survive numerous terrifying encounters with dinosaurs like the T-rex and the Velociraptors before Lex and Tim escape the park with Drs. Grant, Sattler, Malcolm, and their grandfather in Spielberg’s film. By taking responsibility for Hammond’s grandchildren, Grant overcame his dislike of children and became a father figure to Lex and Tim. Subsequently, the Murphy siblings’ cameo at the start of The Lost World: Jurassic Park and their brief reunion with Ian Malcolm was their last appearance in the franchise.
Colin Trevorrow explained to THR that he didn’t include Lex and Tim in Jurassic World Dominion because five major characters from Jurassic Park were already in the sequel. Along with Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, and Ian Malcolm, Jurassic World Dominion also brought back Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong) and Dr. Lewis Dodgson, the CEO of BioSyn who becomes Dominion‘s main villain and is now played by Campbell Scott after Cameron Thor portrayed Dodgson in Jurassic Park. Trevorrow reasoned that the Jurassic Park legacy characters “take up so much oxygen in every room they step into” and he wanted to avoid the film feeling like “a Love Boat episode” with numerous special guests. The director concluded that five Jurassic Park legacy characters in Dominion are already “a lot” and Lex and Tim would be too much.
Trevorrow’s rationale does make sense but it’s still disappointing not to bring back Lex and Tim for the final Jurassic movie. After all, Lex and Tim were the original surrogates for every young person who watched Jurassic Park over the last 30 years. Not only are they important and beloved Jurassic Park characters from the origin of the dinosaur saga, but Lex and Tim were also the prototypes for every other young character to appear in the sequels, from Eric Kirby (Trevor Morgan) in Jurassic Park III to Gray (Ty Simpkins) and Zach Mitchell (Nick Robinson) in Jurassic World, and, finally, Maisie Lockwood in Jurassic World Dominion. In hindsight, Lex and Tim still stand out as the best young characters of the Jurassic franchise.
Today, Lex and Tim are now 29 years older and, by missing Jurassic World Dominion, audiences have been denied the chance to see them reunite with Alan, Ellie, and Ian as adults, as well as meet Owen, Claire, and Maisie. Lex’s computer skills and Tim’s dinosaur expertise, if they continued their hobbies into adulthood, could have been valuable in Jurassic World Dominion. Unfortunately, there’s no update on what became of Lex and Tim since they’re not even mentioned in Dominion. Further, many audience members were expecting Lex and Tim to at least cameo in Jurassic World Dominion, especially after Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello attended the film’s premiere. But now, Lex and Tim missing out on Jurassic World Dominion is irrevocably a missed opportunity, and the absence of John Hammond’s adult grandchildren will always make the Jurassic saga feel unfinished.
Key Release Dates
Jurassic World Dominion
Release Date:2022-06-10
