The news thatJurassic World Rebirthwon’t retcon any elements of the earlierJurassic ParkandJurassic Worldmovies is superb and makes me think that the reboot might manage to make its story work after all. When I first heard about2025’s upcoming rebootJurassic World Rebirth, I wasn’t convinced that it would work.Jurassic World: Dominion’s endingdidn’t exactly leave the franchise with a compelling story to continue, and its abominable reviews made me less than optimistic about its future. That said, David Koepp signing on to write the script did give me hope.
Koepp penned both1993’s originalJurassic Parkand its first sequel,The Lost World, so the reboot appeared to be in good hands. However, my hopes were dashed pretty quickly when I found out that the reboot’s director, David Leitch had left the project. His replacement,Monstershelmer Gareth Edwards, seemed like a perfect candidate since his 2014Godzillablended intimate character drama with large-scale monster movie destruction well. However, the reboot’s July 2025 release date seemed like too little time, until I heard Koepp’s comments onThe Discoursepodcast and finally started to feel hopeful about the reboot.
Writer David Koepp Revealed There Will Be No Retcons In Jurassic World Rebirth
Jurassic World Rebirth Won’t Be Another Reinvention Of The Franchise’s Canon
OnThe Discourse, Koepp revealed that there was a creative bible forJurassic World Rebirththat outlined the rules the movie’s creative team followed. One of them involved no retcons, meaningeverything from the previous movies is canon and will not be changed. Per Koepp, “The events of the previous six movies that cannot be contradicted or denied because I don’t like a retcon.” Koepp went on to note some more major rules that he and Edwards abided by, saying that humor was a vital ingredient and that science needed to be “Real” to work in the reboot.
The Jurassic World movies relentlessly retconned their predecessors whenever it was convenient.
While a commitment to realistic science meansJurassic World 4’s ridiculous ew dinosaursshouldn’t be a problem, the first comment was what really intrigued me. TheJurassic Worldmovies relentlessly retconned their predecessors whenever it was convenient, changing basic facts about the franchise’s dinosaurs and main characters to fit new plot developments. Maisie Lockwood was revealed to be a clone inJurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, only forJurassic World: Dominionto effectively retcon this with her mother’s backstory. Similarly, the chaotic introduction of dinosaurs into human civilization inJurassic World: Fallen Kingdomsomehow turned out to be no big deal.
The Jurassic World Trilogy Retconned Big Plot Points From The Original Jurassic Park Movies
The Jurassic World Movies Changed A Lot Of Major Plot Elements
Jurassic World: Dominionwas the worst offender when it came to the franchise retconning whole swathes of existing canon, as the sequel introduced Maisie’s unmentioned mother far too late and inexplicably turned Dr. Wu into a hero. However, theJurassic Worldtrilogy more broadly suffered a lot from sequel bloat. TheJurassic Worldfranchise’sRotten Tomatoesratingsreflect this, as director Colin Trevorrow’s 2015 original fared well thanks to its decision to remain a relatively faithful, if far larger-scale, retread ofJurassic Park. The next two movies moved away from the spirit of the franchise and suffered for it.
91%
53%
49%
72%
47%
Jurassic World: Dominion
29%
LikeThe Lost World: Jurassic Park,Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdomstruggled to find an excuse to land its characters back on an island infested with killer dinosaurs after the titular theme park’s failure. Like Spielberg’s earlier sequel,Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdomalso used poachers as a plot device, but this soon led to a bizarre spy story where the heroes spent the final act infiltrating a group of arms dealers bidding on dinosaurs as bio-weapons. This plot twist might have worked in a fundamentally campier, sillier series, but the self-contained survival horror ofJurassic ParkandJurassic Worldfelt utterly abandoned.
David Koepp Returning For Jurassic World 4 Is Another Great Sign For The Franchise
Koepp’s Jurassic Park and The Lost World Screenplays Are Classics
In this regard,Jurassic World Rebirth bringing back Koepp as its screenwriter is great news.Jurassic World Rebirth’s screenwriterhasn’t returned to the series sinceThe Lost World: Jurassic Park, but his screenplay for the originalJurassic Parkremains an all-time classic. The subsequentJurassic Worldmovies might have made a ton of money at the box office, but the critical consensus largely agreed that they just weren’t as good as Spielberg’s collaborations with Koepp or even Trevorrow’s loving homage to the original movie. This makes Koepp’s return all the more exciting as he can fix the franchise’s flaws.
Koepp said as much onThe Discourse, discussing how the series needs a change of tone. Koepp wanted something that he called “Maybe more akin to the very first movie,” arguing that the movie should be “Driven by bottles, by containment.” What this means for the series in practical terms is thatJurassic World Rebirthis likely to bring back the self-contained isolated survival horror tone of the original movie rather than the sprawling, globe-trotting adventure feel ofJurassic World’s sequels. AfterJurassic World: Dominion’s terribleFast and Furious-styleset-pieces, I’m delighted to hear this from the screenwriter.
Jurassic World Rebirth Can Return The Jurassic Park Franchise To Its Spiritual Roots
Jurassic World Rebirth Can Revive The Franchise’s Original Tone
TheJurassic Worldsequels went wrong when they tried to turn the franchise into something it should never have been.Jurassic World’s sequels were too big and not scary enough, never replicating the intensity and claustrophobia of Spielberg’s early movies. Koepp clearly understands this, arguing that the franchise needs to return to its roots forJurassic World Rebirth.Jurassic World Rebirth’s synopsis (viaUniversal) states that Scarlett Johansson’s covert operations expert heroine Zora Bennett ends up stranded on an island with a family of civilian holidaymakers, implying that the series will once again focus on small-scale survival over worldwide mayhem.
Koepp’s comments have me convinced thatJurassic World Rebirthcould be the best follow-up toJurassic WorldorJurassic Parkin decades.
Everything aboutJurassic World Rebirth’s synopsispoints in the right direction for the franchise, fusing elements of survival horror with an old-fashioned disaster movie while avoiding the sprawling adventure story ofJurassic World’s earlier sequels. I’m even happier to see that this won’t come at the expense of the rest of the franchise, retconning anything inconvenient and making the series impossible to follow as a result. This bodes well forJurassic World Rebirthand, along with Koepp’s comments, has me convinced that it could be the best follow-up toJurassic WorldorJurassic Parkin decades.
