This weekend, the climactic third film in the Jurassic World series debuts. For several years, fans have followed Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) as they take on the dangers and consequences of Jurassic World opening up, eventually leading to dinosaurs being released into society. That is where Jurassic World: Dominion picks up, several years after society and dinosaurs collide. Along with Owen and Claire trying to protect their adopted daughter, Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), the original trio from the Jurassic Park films return to take on a corrupt corporation.
Like the past Jurassic World films, Dominion is directed by Colin Trevorrow, who also wrote the screenplay with Emily Carmichael. Prior to the film's release, CBR got a chance to chat with Trevorrow about Dominion, the growth of these characters over the years, and what it was like to bring back the original characters.
CBR: What was it like getting to bring the original protagonists from the Jurassic Park franchise into this chapter of Jurassic World, and on such a large scale too?
Colin Trevorrow: In a lot of ways it starts with character, and it starts with a conversation with these actors... Icons, who have been playing icons for 28/29 years, and I feel like they're the authorities on these characters more than I could ever be, even as a fan. So a lot of it was where do we start? How does Laura Dern feel about where Ellie Sattler is coming into this world? How [do] Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum feel? Once we had those conversations, we were able to build characters around their own intentions, which I think gives everybody a real sense of shared ownership with this movie. It's from all of us; it's certainly not just for me, or Emily [Carmichael], or any of the writers. We really created this together.
With the dinosaurs fully being in society at this point in the film, what were you most excited to play with now that we're no longer restricted to the island?
In some ways, it was about what I didn't want to do as much as what I did. I didn't want it to turn into a fantasy film, and I wanted it to stay grounded enough in what we could imagine might happen if all of these animals [were] released into the world. We don't have dinosaurs fighting each other at LAX. It's something that I think would really allow us to believe it, so our rule was let's not have a dinosaur do anything that we don't know an animal has done on this planet at some point in its history.
You've been working with Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt since the beginning of these movies, so what's it been like collaborating with them over all these years on Jurassic World?
In a lot of ways, we've grown up together. We were all young parents when this started, and we each have kids who are roughly the same age, so we became older parents. I think you can see the arc of their story mirroring in some ways what we've all been feeling over the past 7/8/9 years together, so it's very personal in that way. I love the way that these characters changed and evolved, and I love where they ended up. It's all something that, hopefully, is a good balance with the legacy characters and what they're going through, all of it.
Speaking of the characters in Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, is there a character that really stuck out to you in this franchise while you've been working on it for all these years?
To me, personally, Claire is the main character, and each of the movies starts with her. She is the engine of the story, so my relationship with Bryce, in building who she is and how she's changed over this time, it's something that you don't always have that kind of relationship as an actor and a director, and now a director and a director. That, to me, is the thing that I'm probably most proud of.
This movie is larger than life. There's some amazing action sequences. What were some of the biggest challenges when it came to tackling such a huge Jurassic World film?
One thing that I know, we all know, but it's hard to conceive of until you see it is just how many people are working to make all of these sequences as spectacular as they are. We have the most incredible craftsmanship and expertise that is available, so in a lot of ways, for me, it's just about giving everyone the opportunity to do what they do best and understand they know how to do their job better than I know how to do their job. It's something I say to everybody, whenever we start, and hopefully, it gives all of these different technicians and visual effects and animatronics the creative freedom to really test some boundaries and create ideas and do some new stuff we've never seen before.
Catch Jurassic World: Dominion, in theaters now.
