‘Jurassic World 2’ Release Date, Rumors, New Director and More Dinosaurs

Apr 20, 2016 03:42 PM EDT

Universal decided to take a safe risk when they rebooted their Jurassic Park series with Jurassic World last summer, and it worked.  Naturally, a sequel is now in the making, but with a different director.  This is everything that is known about Jurassic World 2 with its release date and rumors. 

According to iDigital Times, there are some things known about the sequel to Jurassic World, which might be just called Jurassic World 2, as the official imdb page just calls the film Untitled Jurassic World Sequel.  It would appear that Chris Pratt, who is busy with other franchises such as Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and The Lego Movie Sequel will appear again as Owen.  It is also known that Claire will be coming back as well.  Are they going to be a couple in this film?  That part isn't known. 

It is possible that the story will be going outside of the park.  Jurassic Park and Jurassic World essentially took place on one location of a dinosaur-filled island, but now that the dinosaurs are free, is there anything keeping them from going to North or South America?  There is a report that the dinosaurs won't belong to one company, which means that other organizations are trying to make them.  This makes sense, as why should Claire's company have the monopoly on them? 

In other words, perhaps audiences should prepare for the world where "dinosaurs and man separated by 65 million years of evolution have been thrown back into the mix together".  Dr. Grant (Sam Neill) stated that in the first Jurassic Park film as well as "how can we know what to expect".  The obvious thing to expect is the application of Dr. Malcolm's chaos theory and that these reborn dinosaurs are going to break through their barriers and try to become masters of the Earth once again. 

Perhaps what the films are working toward is a world where dinosaurs assert their new authority as the ruling species.  Does this mean that we are looking at a world like on The Walking Dead, but instead of zombies, there are dinosaurs?  I have to admit, there is something inherently cool about that, but a whole horde of zombies seems like small potatoes compared to a pack of raptors.  Even Daryl Dixon and Michonne wouldn't be able to handle that, and would lead to set-ups already being handled on The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead.     

A new director has been chosen with J.A. Bayona, who directed two very different films known as The Orphanage and The Impossible.  His first film, The Orphanage, is a horror film, which honestly, Jurassic Park/World is kind of that with the slashers being the dinosaurs.  Bayona's next film was The Impossible, which is a special effects disaster film which is also similar to the plot of Jurassic Park movies.  According to BBC News, Bayona was originally tapped to direct the sequel to World War Z, but has since stepped down. 

Audiences will have to wait over two years before seeing Jurassic World 2 in theaters as its release date will be June 22, 2018.  Considering that I gave a somewhat negative review of the first film, this next film has the chance of being a whole lot worse.  However, there is no question that Jurassic World made a lot of money, so this will keep Universal's biggest franchises alive.