Rebirth Can Finally Redeem Jurassic Park III

The Jurassic World franchise is again hoping to take a bite out of the box office, and while some thought the franchise had ground to a halt with 2022’s Jurassic World Dominion, Universal is here to hopefully score another dino-mite hit. Even though Dominion officially has the lowest critical scores of the franchise, the fact it still made over a billion dollars worldwide means the studio was always likely to churn out another outing. The next adventure is on the way, with Jurassic World: Rebirth coming in 2025.

As the name suggests, Rebirth is poised to chart a new dawn for the Jurassic name. Instead of revisiting the islands of Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’s Gareth Edwards looks like he’s taking audiences to a new locale that could be the mysterious Site C. Said to house the ‘worst of the worst’, Jurassic World: Rebirth is set to deliver some gnarly deaths that could be up there with the franchise’s best, while also homaging some of the greats that have helped the Jurassic name survive 32 years.

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Jurassic World: Rebirth Brings Back Jurassic Park III’s Spinosaurus

The action-packed Jurassic World: Rebirth trailer introduces a new crop of doomed characters, including Scarlett Johansson’s Zora Bennett, Jonathan Bailey’s Dr. Henry Loomis, and Mahershala Ali’s Duncan Kincaid. There are elements of Laura Dern’s Dr Ellie Sattler and Julianne Moore’s Dr. Sarah Harding in Bennett, while Loomis feels like a hybrid of Sam Neill’s Alan Grant and Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady. As for Kincaid, he has a mischievous streak that echoes Jeff Goldblum’s iconic Dr. Ian Malcolm. It’s not just flavors of fan-favorites being brought through, with Rebirth boasting some major nods to the franchise’s past.

Alongside a callback to Tim (Joseph Mazzello) being electrocuted in 1993’s Jurassic Park, there’s a banner falling on a T-Rex to echo the movie’s climactic finale. One shot of Zora and Loomis is a clear wink to The Lost World’s “Don’t go into the long grass,” Jurassic World’s gigantic Mosasaurus again teases a nautical bloodbath, and Dominion’s flying Quetzacoatlus take the action up into the air. It appears that there’s some sort of Easter egg honoring every movie that’s come before, with the presence of InGen looming large at this research facility replicating the feel of Jurassic Park III. Looking a little closer, there’s a much bigger connection to Joe Johnston’s maligned threequel from 2001.

One of the Jurassic World: Rebirth trailer’s big talking points is the unexpected return of the Spinosaurus. First introduced in Jurassic Park III, the Spinosaurus was a large-finned carnivore that caused trouble for Dr. Grant and the Kirby family when they went to rescue their son from Isla Sorna. Instead of the usual climax where a T-Rex is the big bad, Jurassic Park III’s Spinosaurus killed a T-Rex and was left with its fate unknown when the heroes were rescued. In Rebirth a group of three Spinosaurus are seen helping the Mosasaurus protect its territory. As this seems to be a different island, don’t expect the Spinosaurus seen in Rebirth to be an Easter egg like Jurassic Park’s T-Rex returning in 2015’s Jurassic World.

Despite Jurassic Park III’s reputation, the legacy of the Spinosaurus lived on. The species has been MIA from the live-action movies for 24 years, but in the animated Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, the very one that terrorized Dr. Grant was brought back to cause more chaos. It was also here that fans learned its DNA had been fused with a Sinoceratops to create a new hybrid. Although the idea of hybrid dinosaurs was touched on with Jurassic World’s Indominus Rex, Jurassic World: Rebirth looks like it’s making a much bigger deal out of it with the mutated D-Rex that’s inspired by Alien’s Xenomorph and Star Wars’ Rancor. With the Spinosaurus being overlooked as a potentially great addition to the Jurassic lore, the fact there are at least three of them in Rebirth suggests this underrated movie monster can finally get its time to shine.

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What Went Wrong With Jurassic Park III?

Like the Spinosaurus, there’s a general feeling that Jurassic Park III never lived up to its potential. Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton begrudgingly wrote The Lost World as a 1995 novel that was then turned into the 1997 movie, meaning Jurassic Park III was the first in the franchise not to have any source material. Johnston had wanted to direct a sequel after Jurassic Park came out, but when Steven Spielberg returned to the director’s chair, he had to wait until the third movie. Jurassic Park III faced numerous problems, including a complicated script about Sam Neill’s Dr. Alan Grant on the island and a series of dinosaur-related killings on the mainland being thrown out just five weeks before filming.

Whereas the original Jurassic Park only featured 15 minutes of dinosaurs during its 127-minute runtime, Jurassic Park III was criticized for becoming a straight-up monster movie. It’s also the first movie in the franchise that introduced a problematic trope. Taking a leaf out of InGen’s book of bigger is better, the Jurassic movies continue to push the idea of an increasingly elaborate big bad that a doomed crop of humans has to escape. It’s something that the series has been unable to escape, with JPIII’s Spinosaurus, Jurassic World’s Indominus Rex, Fallen Kingdom’s Indoraptor, and Dominion’s Gigantosaurus. It’s a trap that Rebirth is destined to fall into with the D-Rex, and despite the Spinosaurus’ legacy, it won’t stand a chance against the new monster to end all monsters.

Thankfully, Jurassic Park III’s critical and commercial bashing killed plans for a fourth movie dead…for a while. In the immediate aftermath of the third movie, there was talk about Jurassic Park 4 releasing as early as 2005 and featuring genetically engineered human-dinosaur mercenaries. Perish the thought of what human-dino hybrids would’ve looked like with some noughties CGI, although the idea of weaponized dinosaurs was later revisited for both Jurassic World and Dominion – albeit a little more subtly. Jurassic Park III is viewed in a new light following the increasingly action-packed Jurassic World movies, but with Edwards hopefully reminding fans what a great movie it could’ve been, the black sheep of the Jurassic family is well worth a rewatch before Jurassic World: Rebirth hits cinemas.

Jurassic World Rebirth

Release Date

July 2, 2025

Director

Gareth Edwards

Writers

David Koepp, Michael Crichton

Prequel(s)

Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park 3, Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Jurassic World: Dominion

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  Scarlett Johansson

  Zora Bennett

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  Mahershala Ali

  Duncan Kincaid

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  Jonathan Bailey

  Dr. Henry Loomis

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  Rupert Friend

  Martin Krebs