Jurassic World: Rebirth, the seventh film from the Jurassic franchise, will be released in cinemas next year. Already in the course of the announcement it became clear that this was a half-reboot. In concrete terms, this means: The general continuity is retained, but the main characters are replaced.
Scarlett Johansson leads the next adventure in the sci-fi action series. Zora Bennett, who she plays, is a specialist in covert operations and is supposed to secure valuable dinosaur DNA for a miracle cure. That sounds like a dangerous mission. As it turns out, filming was no less exciting.
Jurassic World 4 director Gareth Edwards talks about the dangerous filming of the sequel
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, director Gareth Edwards introduces the latest part of the Jurassic saga in more detail and talks about filming in Southeast Asia, which presented some challenges.
Edwards reveals:
I’m allowed to say this now that we’re on the other side, but we shot in rivers and mangrove swamps. As we scouted them, we saw poisonous water snakes, huge snakes that we had to catch. We kept it secret from the actorsas they had to wade through the same area for an entire day. And there were huge spiders that were poisonous and other things on the edge of the trees.
As if poisonous water hits and giant spiders weren’t enough: Edwards and his team then moved to Malta, where water stunts were performed in large tanks before heading out to sea on ships. And yes, as you can probably imagine, filming didn’t become any less complicated.
Edwards continues:
[Jurassic World: Die Wiedergeburt] is probably the last film I shot on the high seas because it was very difficult. I’m glad we stuck it out, but I think all of the actors went through a journey just as crazy as the characters in the film – this very physically demanding, sometimes life-threatening experiences But they pay off once you’ve done it. A love letter to Steven Spielberg: Jurassic World 4 was largely inspired by Jaws
Exhausting filming on the high seas? It’s no coincidence that this is reminiscent of a film by Steven Spielberg, who brought the first Jurassic Park to the big screen in 1993. Decades earlier, the American director made Jaws, the origins of which were a nightmare in the water.
In fact, Jaws served as Edwards’ inspiration:
For me is [Jurassic World: Die Wiedergeburt] a big love letter to Steven Spielberg and his earlier films. There are moments in this film that remind me a lot of Jaws. Like the greatest hits of all the aspects of his films that I loved as a kid. It’s essentially a little adventure odyssey about this island, a survival story, really.
Even the main characters are based on the trio from Jaws, namely Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw. In addition to Scarlett Johansson, the Jurassic World trio consists of Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey. According to Edwards, there is a kind of love triangle between the three characters.
However, don’t expect an overly romantic story. Rather, Edwards takes the core of Jaws and puts the characters in a conflict with each other in which they try to prove to each other who is stronger. It almost seems as if the dinosaurs were just a minor matter. She hasn’t forgotten Edwards.
Especially when it comes to the giant lizards, he wants to rely on the original:
Jurassic Park was a pioneer in visual effects, but I feel like we… lost in the arms race on the way to the spectacle have. In Jurassic [Park] There were only a few dozen VFX shots, and the film is so impressive. For me it was about returning to all the tricks and ideas that attract the audience, create tension and captivate the audience. I just wanted to recreate the feeling I had when I was young, when I was in awe of these things. When does Jurassic World 4 start in cinemas?
Jurassic World: Rebirth starts on July 2, 2025 in German cinemas. The film could act as the start of a new trilogy. No further films have been officially announced. However, Edwards clearly rewrites the story as a new chapter in the Jurassic saga that can be expanded upon in the future.