The dinosaurs are here to stay! Forever! The Jurassic World franchise just finished off a trilogy of films in 2022 but Universal can’t quit these dinos and the amount of money they bring into the studio.
We’ve known since last year that another Jurassic World film was in the works, with Rogue One director Gareth Edwards at the helm. And today, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Black Widow herself, Scarlett Johansson (who you may have recently seen in Asteroid City, pictured above), is on board to star in the movie.
We don’t have details on who Johansson will be playing, though I hope she veers away from the creative decision in the first Jurassic World feature, where Dallas Bryce Howard’s character, Claire, wears stilettos for the film’s entirety, even when she was running away from a disgruntled T-Rex. That decision was the least realistic (and frankly, most insulting) part of the movie, which says something about a film centered on dinosaurs being brought back to life after being extinct for millions of years.
I could go on about how the representation of Claire was super depressing for me, especially when Laura Dern’s Ellie Sattler in the 1993 original film was… such a better character in every possible way, to put it diplomatically. Hopefully, Johansson’s character will be more like Ellie and less like Claire. I’m optimistic, given that David Koepp, who wrote the original as well as 1997’s Jurassic Park: The Lost World, has penned this script.
We won’t have that long to wait and see, either. Universal is fast-tracking the film, and it’s currently slated to premiere in theatres on July 5, 2025.
