Hollywood simply refuses to let a franchise die. Despite two failed attempts at Jurassic Park sequels, Universal decided to reboot the series with the fourth installment in 2015. Jurassic World began with an interesting set up – a fully functional dinosaur park – but it didn’t take long before it devolved into another generic Jurassic sequel with another generic message about the military-industrial complex.

Then, the sequel brought a “haunted house” plot to the proceedings. A threequel is on the way to wrap up the trilogy. So, here are 5 Things That Have Been Confirmed About Jurassic World 3 (And 5 Fan Theories).

Confirmed: Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are back

Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard have signed back on to play the roles of Owen Grady and Claire Dearing in the third Jurassic World movie. Pratt and Howard’s on-screen chemistry has been one of the best parts of the reboot trilogy so far.

Also confirmed to return to their roles in the threequel are Justice Smith and Daniella Pineda, who debuted in the roles of Franklin Webb and Zia Rodriguez, respectively, in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. As much as there was to disappoint in that movie, Franklin and Zia made for two of the franchise’s most endearing new characters.

Fan theory: America will be a post-apocalyptic wasteland

There are some parallels between the endings of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. They both indicated a huge change in the world, but the credits rolled before we saw the immediate effects of that change. When Dawn of the Planet of the Apes picks up, years after Rise’s cliffhanger ending, apes have mostly reclaimed the world and the few surviving humans are living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Colin Trevorrow has said that Jurassic World 3won’t have a humans-versus-dinosaurs war, because humans would lose that war, so maybe, by the time Jurassic World 3 begins, it’s already happened.

Confirmed: Colin Trevorrow is in the director’s chair

Colin Trevorrow directed the first Jurassic World movie but didn’t direct Fallen Kingdom, because he was slated to helm Star Wars Episode IX for Lucasfilm. However, when he departed that project due to creative differences, the producers of the Jurassic franchise recruited Trevorrow to return for the third chapter in the reboot trilogy.

This is similar to what Lucasfilm has ended up doing for the ninth chapter in the Star Wars saga, bringing back J.J. Abrams, who began the sequel trilogy with The Force Awakens, to conclude it with The Rise of Skywalker. Trevorrow will also executive-produce Jurassic World 3 alongside Steven Spielberg.

Fan theory: The Mosasaurus will make it “Jurassic Park meets Jaws”

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom had an extended opening sequence in which some technicians are terrorized by the Mosasaurus. It’s one of the few dinosaurs that actually has a taste for human blood. And in Fallen Kingdom’s closing montage, it was the only one that posed an immediate threat to humanity, closing in on some surfers from beneath the surface.

This might make the Mosasaurus the focus of the government’s response to dinosaurs invading U.S. soil, and the threequel will then become a glorious mix of Jurassic Park and Jaws. (The Meg already gave us an awesome riff on “Jurassic Park meets Jaws,” but this would give us a Chris Pratt type in place of that movie’s Jason Statham type, creating an entirely new, equally entertaining movie.)

Confirmed: Jurassic World 3 will be released on June 11, 2021

The third Jurassic World movie is slated to hit theaters on June 11, 2021. In a year that will see dozens of hotly anticipated sequels arrive at a multiplex near you – including Avatar 2, Indiana Jones 5, and MCU sequels to Doctor Strange, Thor: Ragnarok, and Spider-Man: Far From Home – Jurassic World 3 will come roaring into theaters.

The summer season has worked wonders for the two past Jurassic World movies, as they’ve both been released on summer dates (the first in 2015 and the second in 2018) and they’ve also both cracked $1 billion at the worldwide box office at a breakneck speed.

Fan theory: Dinosaur-human hybrids will be created

While it was stuck in development hell for what seemed like an eternity, Jurassic Park 4 went through various different script drafts. A few of those drafts included the concept of dinosaur-human hybrids. There were also human-dog hybrids and dinosaur hybrids at certain points. Both Jurassic World movies have toyed around with the creation of hybrid species.

With the world now inhabited by dinosaurs and humans having to learn to co-exist with them, some fans have predicted that those old script ideas about dinosaur-human hybrids will be resurrected for Jurassic World 3. It could be a villain’s insane plan to bridge the divide between humans and dinosaurs.

Confirmed: Colin Trevorrow is writing the screenplay with Emily Carmichael

Colin Trevorrow returned to the director’s chair in the Jurassic World franchise when Lucasfilm didn’t appreciate his ideas for Star Wars Episode IX. His writing partner Derek Connolly initially worked on the story with Trevorrow, but the director is writing the screenplay for Jurassic World 3 with Emily Carmichael. Last year, Carmichael got her first writing credit on a major Hollywood movie when she co-wrote Pacific Rim: Uprising.

She also co-wrote the script for Battle at Big Rock, a recently released short film set in the Jurassic World universe. The short was surprisingly well-received by critics, who felt that it was an improvement over the feature-length sequels.

Fan theory: The military will weaponize dinosaurs

In the first Jurassic World film, Vincent D’Onofrio’s evil character wanted to buy some dinosaurs and weaponize them to help the U.S. military win wars. In the second one, a bunch of wealthy industrialists bid on the dinosaurs that a group of mercenaries brought back from the island. And then it ended with dinosaurs being released into the wild.

So, it seems as though this trilogy is headed towards a storyline in which the military captures and weaponizes a bunch of dinosaurs. The title of the threequel could even be Jurassic War to shake things up a little and change the formula.

Confirmed: The central trio from the original film is back

While Jurassic World 3 has been casting plenty of new actors to join the franchise, including Mamoudou Athie and DeWanda Wise, the biggest news story to come from the film is the casting of Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum. They’ll be reprising their roles as the three lead characters from the original Jurassic Park film.

Goldblum already reappeared as Ian Malcolm in an overhyped cameo in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, but Neill will be playing Alan Grant and Dern will be playing Ellie Sattler alongside him in the upcoming threequel. The two will undoubtedly have some mixed opinions about InGen recklessly allowing dinosaurs to populate human civilization.

Fan theory: InGen is finally ready to listen to Grant, Sattler, and Malcolm

Since InGen first perfected dinosaur cloning, Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, and Ian Malcolm have been telling them that a theme park is a bad idea and they shouldn’t play God and humans and dinosaurs were never meant to co-exist. Time and time again, InGen has ignored them and then brought them in to pick up the pieces.

Now that InGen has really screwed up and the dinosaurs have made it to mainland America and humans are being forced to co-exist with them, it stands to reason that its board of directors would finally be willing to listen to what Grant, Sattler, and Malcolm have to say.

  • Jurassic World Dominion Release Date: 2022-06-10