Hang onto your hats. This is going to be a long one because we have a lot to talk about. We’re doing a deep dive reaction to the two new trailers for the upcoming Jurassic World: Rebirth film, and I have to ask: Do we really need another Jurassic Park or Jurassic World movie? I think this is the kind of question that every trailer must answer for any film, but it’s an especially important question for a film that is the seventh film in a franchise.

Has this jurassic story line run its course or is there still something worth watching beyond the spectacle of dinosaurs tearing through jungles or cities and eating humans who have no business being there in the first place? What can they give us that we haven’t seen before? That is the question of the day.

Before we jump into this reaction to the Jurassic World: Rebirth trailers, remember these discussions are always more fun when you are a part of them, let me know what you are thinking in the comments! Specifically, are you excited for this film or do you think it’s time for Hollywood to move on and dig up a new dinosaur story? That’s the question that these two trailers have to answer. So, let’s break it down.

You can read the discussion below or watch the video on YouTube:

I’ve only seen the trailers, not the full film. So, I’m going to make some educated guesses based purely on what we see in the trailers and what we know about the director Gareth Edwards who is best known for Rogue One and The Creator, as well as the screenwriter David Koepp who wrote the original two Jurassic Park films. If any of my predictions and assumptions are right, this video may have some spoilers, but since no one has seen the movie yet, it’s anyone’s guess. Right now, this is all speculation.

Here’s what we know: The plot revolves around a mission to retrieve dinosaur DNA, which is supposedly necessary for a medical breakthrough that could save countless human lives. Of course, this DNA must come from the largest and most dangerous dinosaurs on a remote island, which turns out to be the secret former Jurassic Park research facility. And naturally, raptors are involved because why wouldn’t they be?

In addition to the writer and director, the cast will include Scarlett Johansson as Zora Bennett (who is the snarky badass mission leader), Jonathan Bailey as Dr. Henry Loomis (the nerdy scientist seeking dinosaur DNA), Mahershala Ali as Duncan Kincaid (the team’s transporter/smuggler who is supposed to get them on and off the island), and Audrina Miranda as a mysterious child character who is with the team on the island (for no other discernible reason than to be able to market this film to children).

First Impressions

My first impressions of the trailers bring up a couple key issues. First, there is one immediate red flag in the story. Why does the mission specifically requires DNA from the biggest and most lethal dinosaurs. Why those dinosaurs? So, the choice of dinosaur DNA suggests there’s more at play than a simple medical breakthrough. Could this be another corporate scheme disguised as science? Is there a darker, hidden agenda behind the mission?

My other first impression is related to Gareth Edwards’ directing style because we can easily make some predictions based upon his past films and preferences. He tends to build stories around a strong ‘what if?’ premise, such as in The Creator where he explored the idea of “What if AI was truly sentient?” and in Rogue One he dug into the question of “What if a rebellion started with ordinary people?” His “what if?” questions tend to be more about perspective shifts that uncover hidden layers beneath what we think we know and what we don’t know to address the larger social ramifications. So, I think what he’ll be going after here is the question of “What if Jurassic Park was never about dinosaurs at all?”

He also trusts his audience, avoiding excessive exposition. Instead, he allows the story to unfold naturally. That means he’s unlikely to spend much time rehashing old Jurassic Park lore despite having the writer from the original film on this project. He’ll pick up where the last film left off and move forward.

Artistic Direction Within the Trailers

Gareth Edwards is also known for prioritizing realism and relationships that focus on strong character dynamics that place story over spectacle, but with dinosaurs, we will likely have a healthy dose of spectacle in this film. So, I’m guessing that we will end up with a fair mixture of both story and spectacle that can lean into the elements that drive the tension, horror, and suspense.

The most critical factor, however, is that Gareth Edwards has a history of preferring real-world locations over CGI-heavy environments, which could give this film a more tactile, immersive feel compared to the previous Jurassic World movies. In the trailers, we can already confirm several things. First, Edwards has embraced the real-world locations, which are featured in the scenes with the characters on the island, walking through overgrown and untamed flora, reinforcing the idea that nature has reclaimed the land.

What We Know About the Dinosaurs

While there are three dinosaurs that they are after, only the Quetzalcoatlus is identified as one of them, which was named after Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god from Aztec mythology. It’s the dinosaur that is describes as being “the size of an F-15” with an estimated wingspan of nearly 40 feet and is as tall as a giraffe when standing. Yes, I had to google that!

There are also indications that the dinosaurs are evolving, possibly forming cooperative hunting strategies with other species, which could imply a learned communication style between these creatures. This makes me think about Jeff Goldbum’s character in the first film, Dr. Ian Malcolm, who warned that nature always finds a way and that humanity never truly has control. So, if these dinosaurs are now hunting in coordinated packs, how might they have evolved in ways that the human expedition haven’t anticipated?

This idea is underscored by another line of dialog that “the data about these creatures has been erased,” suggesting a cover-up about what was really happening on this island. Why was it shut down? What was their real goal? Were they attempting to push the boundaries of evolution with genetic engineering that went beyond a desire to bring back the dinosaurs? If not, why delete the records?

Hubris and Spoilers

This question leads to a potential “red hulk sized” spoiler from the trailer since there is a mention and visual that both indicate the island isn’t just inhabited by dinosaurs, but by monsters. The trailer includes the line of dialog, “Before they wanted to bring dinosaurs back to life … they wanted monsters.”

Monsters? Well, that’s exciting and different! But don’t put it in the trailer! Surprise us with that! Dear studios, please stop spoiling the movies!

It’s frustrating that the trailer reveals the possible presence of a “monster” twist right up front. If they wanted to build suspense, this should have been held back as a shocking revelation in the film itself. Instead, this feels like the studio was afraid that dinosaurs weren’t enough to sell the film. So, they had to throw the surprise twist into the trailer like Marvel did with Captain America: Brave New World when they put the Red Hulk front and center to grab our attention. It makes me feel like either they don’t believe in the draw of the Jurassic Park franchise, or they don’t trust the audience. Either way, that’s annoying because we are so tired of trailers that spoil the film, and I hope this isn’t one of those examples.

However, this reference really does serve as an outright indication that there was a deeper genetic experiment happening on this island that what anyone knew about. Thus, the deleted data. Wouldn’t it have been more effective to let audiences piece it together on their own? Now, rather than speculating about what’s lurking on the island, we’re waiting to see exactly how extreme these experiments got, which takes away some of the tension.

What Did John Hammond Know?

So, I have to ask, what did John Hammond really know about the experiments on this island, if anything? He sold Jurassic Park as a “family friendly” theme park in a way that only a somewhat naïve idealist can manage. However, these trailers for Jurassic World: Rebirth underscore the idea that the science, which made Jurassic Park possible, may have never been about simply bringing dinosaurs back to life. The family friendly face of the park may have just been a front for something much deeper and darker that InGen Technologies was doing either with or without John Hammond’s knowledge, but as the founder, it would be hard to believe that he didn’t know about the experimentation that is alluded to in the trailers for Jurassic World: Rebirth.

So, this film really does need to address the question of how much John Hammond knew about these experiments and if he was involved with shutting down or setting up this island’s research. And if Hammond was aware of early hybrid or monster experimentation happening at the “original” Jurassic Park research facility on this island, then the entire premise of the original film shifts, and that is a big change to the lore for the franchise because it potentially changes his character, making him complicit in a deeper and more insidious scientific endeavor than we thought.

Additionally, it could reveal that the events of the first film weren’t an isolated accident, but rather the inevitable and predictable consequence of decades of unchecked genetic manipulation — just like Ian Malcolm the cautions in the first film. If Hammond or others at InGen were involved in more extreme experiments than the ones we saw in Jurassic Park, then this franchise may be heading toward an entirely new revelation: Jurassic Park was never about dinosaurs. It was always about pushing the boundaries of life itself.

Ethical & Scientific Questions

So, what are those “medical advances” that are so revolutionary that it is worth sending a team to this island to capture the DNA of three special dinosaurs? This opens a whole new set of questions that could breathe life into a set of new films within the franchise. However, it also brings up a bunch of ethical and scientific questions that this or future films will need to address. Jurassic World: Rebirth is likely just the first salvo into this conversation on ethics, but we’ll have to see the film to know how they address these ideas. While the purpose of retrieving these DNA samples is for “lifesaving” medical advancements, the film should explore whether this is just a convenient justification for something more dangerous.

With modern biotech advances like CRISPR and AI-driven genetic engineering already pushing these boundaries in real life, the idea of repurposing prehistoric dinosaur DNA in any way that is related to human DNA raises major ethical questions. Could this research be leading toward weaponized genetics, bioengineered super-creatures, or something far worse? If history has shown us anything, it’s that whenever scientific breakthroughs occur, there are those who want to exploit them for profit or power.

If Jurassic World: Rebirth leans into this question or even just teases them for future films, it could add a deeper layer to the film’s narrative that raise issues related to corporate greed, military applications of genetics, and the unintended consequences of tampering with nature … all of which are socially relevant today and for years to come.

Where’s The Government?

One glaring issue from the trailers is how weak the government response seems to be regarding this island. Duncan Kincaid, the smuggler, makes an offhand comment about how government patrols are weak because “no one is dumb enough to go there.” But that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

If history has shown us anything, it’s that humans are absolutely dumb enough to go places they shouldn’t. People climb deadly mountains despite clear warnings, they explore abandoned nuclear zones, and they trespass into off-limits areas for everything from corporate greed to thrill-seeking. The idea that a site containing the most dangerous dinosaurs ever created would be left lightly guarded at best strains credibility. Even if governments weren’t concerned about protecting reckless intruders, they would at least want to ensure that nothing gets off the island. Wouldn’t that at least warrant 24-hour satellite surveillance of the island and waters around it?

This problem is eerily similar to the security failures in Alien: Romulus. In that film, a derelict space station was somehow left unguarded, despite being home to a deadly alien species. There is more to it than that, of course, which I get into in my review of that film. However, the basic narrative failure is the same. If the government (or any authority) knows a location is too dangerous for human presence, why aren’t there better containment measures? The answer is often “incompetence of convenience,” which is a flimsy excuse that makes the narrative possible but weakens the world-building.

Now, there’s another possibility — the security wasn’t just neglected; it was deliberately sabotaged. If someone on the inside wanted this group to get in (and more importantly, get back out unseen), that would be a compelling twist. This would parallel the original Jurassic Park, where Dennis Nedry took down the park’s security systems to smuggle out embryos, only to be eaten by raptors for his trouble. A similar inside job in Jurassic World: Rebirth would not only make more sense but would also reinforce the franchise’s recurring theme that human greed and arrogance always lead to disaster or, again as Dr. Ian Malcolm put it, nature always wins.

If Jurassic World: Rebirth wants to be taken seriously, it needs to answer this security question in a way that fits the logic of the world rather than just using it as an excuse to move the plot forward.

Final Thoughts on the Trailers

Jurassic World: Rebirth is clearly leaning into nostalgia, but the real question is whether the narrative is just a nostalgia play or something truly fresh. The trailers leave this question up for debate, which is nice because that’s what will get the audience into the theater.

I like that it’s moving away from the global-scale chaos of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Dominion and back to a contained survival horror story. Isolation breeds fear, and this remote island setting looks primed to do just that.

If this film is going to succeed, it’s going to have to address three key questions that the trailers raise to make it a meaningful addition that could extend the life of the franchise:

• First: What was the true purpose of this research facility?
• Second: Who deleted the data, and why?
• Third: Are the dinosaurs on this island the same ones from Jurassic Park, or have they evolved into something more dangerous?

I believe that Gareth Edwards is the right director to bring suspense, realism, and deeper themes to this franchise. If Jurassic World: Rebirth manages to capture the wonder and the terror, as well as the ethical dilemmas, of the original Jurassic Park, I think this could be a win for the franchise and for fans.

But what do you think? Are you in or out? Are you tired of the Jurassic story lines? Let me know what you think of the Jurassic World: Rebirth trailers and your impressions of the film in the comments. Or do you just love seeing dinosaurs on the big screen? Let me know!

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