With Jurassic World Rebirth, Universal Pictures is hoping to recreate the movie magic that made the first Jurassic Park such a hit. And according to screenwriter David Koepp, this extends as far as recycling a scene that didn’t make it into the dinosaur franchise’s OG entry!
Koepp, who co-wrote Jurassic Park‘s screenplay with author Michael Crichton, explained how unused material from that film wound up in Rebirth in an interview with Variety. Short version? Thumbing through Crichton’s source novels before sitting down at his keyboard reminded Koepp of a set piece he and Steven Spielberg tried and failed to squeeze into Jurassic Park.
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“I reread the two [Jurassic Park] novels to get myself back in that mode […] We did take some things from them,” Koepp said. “There was a sequence from the first novel that we’d always wanted in the original movie, but didn’t have room for. We were like, ‘Hey, we get to use that now.’”
But while Koepp and executive producer Spielberg are clearly harkening back to Jurassic World Rebirth‘s roots, they’re not interested in retconning the more polarizing aspects of recent franchise installments. Indeed, in a separate interview with /Film, Koepp reiterated that Rebirth won’t directly contradict the human/dinosaur co-existence status quo established by its immediate predecessor, Jurassic World Dominion.
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“We didn’t want to deny any events that occurred,” he explained. “[The new film is set] in that world. But how might that world have changed in the last five years, and whose story is this now? So it was a chance to start over, and still play in this incredibly fun sandbox with the enthusiasm of a big studio behind you. It was the best of all possible worlds. And Steven and I got to do the absolute most fun part of filmmaking, which is, ‘Hey, what if…’ and then you just make up stuff.”
Jurassic World Rebirth roars into cinemas on July 2, 2025.