The dinosaurs are back — and so is the awe. The upcoming Jurassic World Rebirth is making a bold attempt to take fans of the franchise back to its roots, swapping global destruction for something more intimate, terrifying, and wonder-filled. And leading the charge into this new (but very ancient) world is none other than Jonathan Bailey, who stars as dashing paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis — and thanks to a brand-new image revealed in Empire’s exclusive summer preview, we’ve now got another official look at the world’s most scientifically gifted thirst trap.
Bailey — fresh off his acclaimed turns in Fellow Travelers and Bridgerton, as well as dancing through life in Wicked — is trading witches and regency estates for dense, dinosaur-infested jungle, leading a perilous expedition to recover DNA from some of the deadliest creatures in history. The film, directed by Rogue One and The Creator helmer Gareth Edwards, also stars Mahershala Ali as survivalist Duncan Kincaid and Scarlett Johansson as covert ops specialist Zora Bennett.
“It really does feel that it’s welcoming people to really celebrate the original film,” Bailey told Empire. “It has that wonder and awe, while not being scared to re-inject the thrill and the fear.”
If the Jurassic World trilogy turned up the action — with its island-erupting volcanoes and raptor-motorcycle chase scenes — Rebirth dials things back to Jurassic Park’s Spielbergian sense of scale and suspense. There are, reportedly, plenty of jumps and scares, but also the kind of jaw-dropping moments that made audiences fall in love with dinosaurs all over again in 1993. And we need dinosaurs to feel magic again, not just… something we’re used to, as Johansson noted.
“It hearkens back to the first one. It has a lot of good jump-scares, and the stakes are high.”
Is ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ Like ‘Jurassic Park’?
Shot on location in the jungles of Thailand — a conscious throwback to Steven Spielberg‘s original Hawaiian shoot — the production was as intense as the film itself. Real-life dangers, from deadly snakes to tropical storms, helped elevate the tension for the cast. “There were really dangerous water snakes swimming past us,” Bailey said. “So the fear and adrenaline was as real as it could be.”
Returning to the franchise, too, is original Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp, who says the new direction is all about shifting perspective — literally.
“The last few movies were exploring the idea of, ‘Hey, what would it be like if [dinosaurs] were in our environment?’ They did that very well. Now we wanted to explore how it felt to go back to theirs.”
Jurassic World Rebirth hits theaters on July 2.
Source: Empire
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