Jurassic World: Rebirth

Jurassic World: Rebirth is the seventh film in the Jurassic Park film series and the fourth film in the Jurassic World series. It was directed by Gareth Edwards and was released July 2, 2025.

Cast

• Scarlett Johansson as Zora Bennett, a covert operation expert
• Mahershala Ali as Duncan Kincaid, Zora’s team leader
• Jonathan Bailey as Dr. Henry Loomis, a paleontologist
• Rupert Friend as Martin Krebs, a pharmaceutical representative
• Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Reuben Delgado, the father of a shipwrecked civilian family
• Luna Blaise as Reuben’s eldest daughter
• David Iacono as Reuben’s son
• Audrina Miranda as Reuben’s youngest daughter
• Philippine Velge
• Bechir Sylvain as Zora’s team member
• Ed Skrein

Storyline

Five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, the planet’s environment has shown itself to be mainly inhospitable to dinosaurs. The survivors now live in remote tropical regions with conditions similar to those in which they were formerly abundant. Zora Bennett, a covert operative, is hired to work with paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis and team leader Duncan Kincaid on a top-secret mission. Their goal is to locate the three largest creatures within the tropics and acquire their DNA, which contains the key to a drug that will miraculously save human lives.

The team crosses paths with a civilian family whose boating adventure was overturned by roving aquatic dinosaurs, leaving them all stranded on an island. Once the site of Jurassic Park’s research laboratory, the group discovers that the island is home to failed, mutated dinosaurs which have thrived there for decades.

Pre-Production

The script for Jurassic World: Rebirth was written by David Koepp who co-wrote the first Jurassic Park and wrote its sequel The Lost World. He turned down the chance to write another, feeling that he didn’t have anything new to contribute to the series. The studio still consulted with him on future sequels, and he did some uncredited work on Jurassic World Dominion.

Executive producer Steven Spielberg asked Koepp about returning to the series again. Koepp then re-read Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park novels, incorporating ideas from both of his novels into the film. For instance Jurassic World: Rebirth features a scene cut from the first Jurassic Park where the characters on a raft must escape from a Tyrannosaurs rex.

In January 2024, it was reported that a new Jurassic World was in development by Universal. By this point, several drafts of the script had been written by Koepp. The producers had done some pre-production work, including dinosaur designs, before a director had been chosen. The producers wanted to have more creative control over the new film than they did for Jurassic World Dominion, due to Dominion’s negative reception.

Spielberg and Koepp wanted to return to the tone of the original Jurassic Park trilogy. Apart from some dinosaurs, Koepp didn’t have story requirements to follow. He wanted the film to be based on accurate science and not recon events of the previous films. Paleontologist Stephen Brusatte returns as a dinosaur consultant.

Jonathan Bailey and Scarlett Johansson

Previous Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow said it was unlikely that he would return as director, due to finishing his trilogy of films. In February 2024, David Leitch was in talks to direct the film but talks broke down as the project had progressed so far that he wouldn’t have much creative input. Gareth Edwards (Godzilla, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) was then announced as the director. Spielberg enjoyed 2014’s Godzilla and Edwards liked the original Jurassic Park. At the time, Edwards planned to take a break from filmmaking and was writing a new film. He was then offered to direct Jurassic World Rebirth and he agreed. Edwards changed one scene involving a pterosaur nest. It was originally written to take place in a cave but was changed to take place in an abandoned ancient temple.

Casting

Jurassic World Rebirth is the first Jurassic film to not include any characters from previous Jurassic films. Jennifer Lawrence turned down the lead character which eventually went to Scarlett Johansson.

Production

Filming began in Thailand on June 13, 2024 under the working title of Saga. Filming in Thailand lasted a month. Filming locations included Khao Phanom Bencha National Park in Krabi, Ko Kradan at Hat Chao Mai National Park in Trang and Ao Phang Nga National Park in Phang Nga. In July 2024, filming moved to Malta Film Studios in Kalkara, Malta. Some of the stunt work was filmed in a tank and filming in the ocean took place in the Mediterranean Sea.

Zora Bennett & Martin Krebs

In August 2024, filming moved to London, UK and Sky Studios Elstree before filming wrapped on September 27, 2024. Some reshoots were done in New York City three weeks later. John Mathieson was the cinematographer on the film. Edwards shot the film on 35mm for the first time in his career so that it would harken back to the original films. The dinosaurs were created using a mixture of animatronics and CGI.

Marketing

The film’s title and two production stills were revealed August 29, 2024. The first trailer was released February 5, 2025 along with lots of stills. A 60-second TV spot was broadcast at Super Bowl LIX on February 9, 2025. Mattel and Lego will produce a line of film-based toys as part of the promotional campaign.

Release

Jurassic World Rebirth was released in the United States on July 2, 2025.

Box Office

Jurassic World: Rebirth grossed $321.3 million in North America, and $456 million overseas, for a worldwide total of $777.3 million.

Reception

Jurassic World: Rebirth scored 51% on Rotten Tomatoes, after 378 critic reviews and summarised the film as “Going back to basics with rip-roaring set pieces and fossilized clichés, Jurassic World Rebirth doesn’t evolve this prehistoric franchise but does restore some of its most reliable DNA.” 

The film gained a mixed reaction from critics. IGN scored the film 5/10, saying that it doesn’t really do anything different or bring anything new to the franchise.

There’s a disappointing amount of “same old thing” to Jurassic World Rebirth. Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and the rest of the cast are intriguing and sympathetic throughout, but Gareth Edwards doesn’t quite recapture his signature flair for grand-scale visuals nor does David Koepp find the magic of his original Jurassic Park screenplay, opting to follow that movie’s structure as more of a remix than a rebirth.

Den of Geek scored it 3/5 and criticised the script, calling it overstuffed.

If we take the movie’s name literally, then most of its missteps can be forgiven as the mess that comes with the birthing process. Perhaps the movie’s use of mutant dinos and its bloated story with too much non-character development are the shell from which the true thing emerges, the pulp adventure that these movies are meant to be. Hopefully, when the inevitable sequel comes, it will follow Jurassic Park Rebirth‘s march away from the problems of the previous Jurassic World movies and back to the fun, dinosaur-centric heart of Jurassic Park.

IndiWire scored the film C-, criticising the callbacks to the original Jurassic Park film.

Needless to say, “Rebirth” doesn’t do itself any favors by so frequently harkening back to the original. Bad as some of the previous sequels have been, none of them have been so eager to measure themselves against Spielberg’s masterpiece. Nothing in this movie is quite as maddening as the second trilogy’s attempt to make audiences invest in a specific Velociraptor (though Edwards half-heartedly tries to sweeten us on an adorable baby Aquilops named Dolores), but the extent to which this franchise is just fending off its own extinction has never been more obvious than it is in during the “Rebirth” sequence that pays homage to the kitchen encounter from the first movie. The “Jurassic” sequels were bad enough when they made an effort to evolve — they’re even less worth seeing now that they already come pre-fossilized.

Production Stills

Zora Bennett & Henry Loomis

Scarlett Johansson is skilled covert operations expert Zora Bennett and Jonathan Bailey is paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jasin Boland/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment)

Zora Bennett

Zora Bennett

Museum

T-Rex

Scarlett Johansson as Zora Bennett

Zora Bennett & Henry Loomis

Martin Krebs, Duncan Kincaid & LeClerc

Isabella Delgado (Audrina Miranda), Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), Teresa Delgado (Luna Blaise) and Xavier Dobbs (David Iacono) (Jasin Boland/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment)

You can view more images on Jurassic World: Rebirth Production Stills here.