It feels like only yesterday that Universal Pictures was in over their heads with their “Jurassic World” reboot, with director David Leitch exiting the project in February and Gareth Edwards signing on for it weeks later. But now, less than six months later, the studio has new stills, a synopsis, and a snazzy new title for the blockbuster to show off to “Jurassic Park” fans. So it’s all systems go for the film to hit its July 2, 2025 theatrical release date on time (and keep the series’ streak of $1 billion-plus grosses intact).
First up, the movie’s title: “Jurassic World: Rebirth.” Not the most inventive title in the world, but it highlights the fact that the upcoming film is a hard reboot of the series, featuring an all-new cast of characters. Set five years after the events of 2022’s “Jurassic World: Dominion,” “Rebirth” follows an intrepid team racing against time to secure DNA samples from three of the most colossal creatures across, land, sea, and air.
Scarlett Johannson stars as covert ops specialist Zora Bennett, contracted to assemble a team to track down the genetic samples. Mahershala Ali is Zora’s team leader, Duncan Kincaid, and Jonathan Bailey stars as paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis. Together, they’ll track down the DNA they need while they also help save a shipwrecked family stuck near the equator, the only region of Earth where dinosaurs still thrive. Rupert Friend also stars as Big Pharma rep (and obvious bad guy) Martin Kreps, while Manuel Garcia-Rulfo plays Reuben Delgado, patriarch of the family marooned on an island that holds a decades-long secret about the dinosaurs’ existence.
“Jurassic Park” screenwriter David Koepp, who also penned “The Lost World” and the story for “Jurassic Park III,” returns to write the script for “Jurassic World: Rebirth.” Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley produce the film via Amblin Entertainment and The Kennedy/Marshall Company. Edwards directs, his first film since 2022’s “The Creator,” with John Mathieson as cinematographer. Production on the film is currently underway, with filming in Thailand, Malta, and London. Filming is expected to wrap in mid-October.
There’s not much to glean from the two new images “Jurassic World: Rebirth,” but they look promising enough. With any luck, Koepp and Edwards supply a blockbuster that leans more into the grounded thrills of Steven Spielberg‘s first two “Jurassic Park” films instead of the bloated, CGI-ridden, fan-service-y experience of “Dominion.” But it’s too early to speculate on that, so let’s wait until the first teaser trailer for “Rebirth” arrives.
“Jurassic Park: Rebirth” hits theaters on July 2, 2025. Take a look at the first-look images from the film below.
