Jurassic World, the fourth film in the Jurassic Park series, has proven that there’s still plenty of life in the franchise. The movie achieved the highest global box office opening to date, and has since earned $1 billion worldwide in record time. Its latest achievement was dethroning The Avengers and taking its place as the third highest-grossing film of all time.
The Jurassic Park series (soft) reboot is an undeniable success and has been a major contributor to Universal’s record-breaking year. With such incredible numbers, sequels are a foregone conclusion. It was not a matter of if, but when we would be returning to the franchise. Now, it has been confirmed exactly when we’ll be seeing more dinosaur destruction on the big screen.
Universal Pictures has officially set the release date for the next Jurassic World film. The currently untitled movie will premiere on June 22nd, 2018, with Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard returning as its stars. Jurassic World co-writer/director Colin Trevorrow will pen the script with his frequent collaborator Derek Connolly, though Trevorrow is not expected to return to the director’s chair (perhaps because he’ll be directing a Star Wars film around the time production begins).
Jurassic Park franchise producers Steven Spielberg and Frank Marshall are also expected to return for the Jurassic World sequel, with Trevorrow also serving as an executive producer on the project. Overall, the crew behind the upcoming film is matching pretty closely to those who worked on Jurassic World. The biggest question now is who Universal will tap to direct the sequel.
Trevorrow has made it clear that he doesn’t plan to return to the director’s chair on the Jurassic World followup, stating that having a different filmmaker onboard will allow the sequel to have its own distinct “flavor” (a la installments in the Mission: Impossible series). Changing the director is a way to keep the franchise feeling fresh, after four Jurassic films having been released, thus far.
Regardless of who ends up sitting in the director’s chair, they’re going to be under immense pressure to repeat Jurassic World‘s success. One area that could be improved upon, filmmaking-wise, is the human element. Jurassic World tried to include a meaningful, human-centric story, but many would agree: it fell short, in that regard. Perhaps Pratt and Howard will be able to expand on their Jurassic World characters and introduce a more meaningful, well-realized relationship between the two in the sequel.
NEXT: Jurassic World Easter Eggs & Trivia
The Jurassic World sequel opens in U.S. theaters on June 22, 2018.
