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'Jurassic World Rebirth' is "a love letter" to the beloved original film according to co-star Jonathan Bailey

By Sophia Soto | Last updated May 11, 2025 12:43 PM ET

With Jurassic World Rebirth approaching, stars Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey are offering some insight on what exactly fans can expect from the newest Jurassic installment.

Bailey says that the movie is "a love letter" to the 1993 original, explaining to Empire, "It really does feel that it’s welcoming people to really celebrate the original film. It has that wonder and awe, while not being scared to re-inject the thrill and the fear."

Five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, the planet’s ecology has proven largely inhospitable to dinosaurs. Those remaining exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling the one in which they once thrived. The three most colossal creatures within that tropical biosphere hold the key to a drug that will bring miraculous life-saving benefits to humankind.

Johansson then added, "It hearkens back to the first one. It has a lot of good jump-scares, and the stakes are high."

Filming took place in the middle of the jungle in Thailand. "There were really dangerous water snakes swimming past us," Bailey mentioned. "So the fear and adrenaline was as real as it could be."

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This was all done to "recapture the idea that we are in the dinosaurs’ environment," according to screenwriter David Koepp, who wrote both Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park. "The last few movies were exploring the idea of, 'Hey, what would it be like if they were in our environment?' They did that very well, and now we wanted to explore how it felt to go back to theirs."

Director Gareth Edwards also expressed, "It goes back to what I loved about the original with an embarrassment of riches of different set-piece-type scenarios and tense, fun action moments. There were a lot of opportunities as a filmmaker to have a lot of fun and try and play games with the audience." This will serve as "a whole new chapter in the timeline of Jurassic."

Additionally, the cast includes Mahershala Ali, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono, Audrina Miranda, Philippine Velge, Bechir Sylvain, and Ed Skrein.

Jurassic World Rebirth will be released in theaters on July 2.

Sophia Soto

Sophia Soto is a writer and interviewer with a passion for all things entertainment. She is a Senior Reporter at The Nerds of Color and contributes to Yardbarker, Screensphere, Den of Geek, What to Watch, Nerdtropolis, and Temple of Geek. You can see her past work on Remezcla, Young Hollywood, Looper, Paste Magazine, Primetimer, Soundsphere, and Starry Constellation Magazine

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