Jurassic World Rebirthintroduces a new cast of characters that could all conceivably be part of the franchise’s future. The newest movie in the long-running series primarily follows Scarlett Johansson’s Zora, Jonathan Bailey’s Henry, and Mahershala Ali’s Duncan as they embark on a mission on a remote island to retrieve the DNA of the largest dinosaurs of the land, air, and sea.
The film is meant to start a new era for the franchise after multiple disappointments, but unfortunately, a lot ofreviews forJurassic World Rebirthhave been quite negative. Despite this, the movie has been a major box office success, making $769 million globally as of this writing. This haul practically guaranteesthere will be aJurassic World 5.
Theending ofJurassic World Rebirthdoesn’t necessarily set up a storyline for the next movie, but Zora, Henry, Duncan, and the Delgado family all survive the events of the film. Therefore, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Universal wanted to bring some of them all back for the next movie. However, this would be a mistake. Only one of them should return inJurassic World 5.
Duncan Should Return In The Next Jurassic World Movie
Jurassic World Rebirthtries its best to honor the legacy of the originalJurassic Parkmovie. To accomplish this goal, it only made sense for the new movie to include yet another trio.In the originalJurassic Park, Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, and Ian Malcolm make an incredible trio, but only Jeff Goldblum returned for the sequel, 1997’sThe Lost World: Jurassic Park.
Therefore,Jurassic World 5could take inspiration fromThe Lost Worldand only bring back one of the main characters fromRebirth. If it does this, thenDuncan should definitely be the one to return in the next movie.
To save Isabella and the other characters at the end ofJurassic World Rebirth, Duncan lures the D-rex awaywith a flare. After making this decision, it seems clear that Duncan will be killed by the terrifying mutant dinosaur. However, even though the D-rex stared him down in the water, the final moments of the movie reveal that Duncan is still alive.
Director Gareth Edwards has revealed thatDuncan was supposed to die inJurassic World Rebirth. However, the studio ultimately suggested that he should live, presumably because they wanted the option to potentially bring Ali back for a sequel. This decision has proven to be divisive, sincekilling Duncan would have completed his character arc, but perhaps there’s a reason he survived his encounter with the D-rex.
This is an idea that could be explored inJurassic World 5, which could justify backtracking Duncan’s deathat the end ofRebirth. More than any other character in the franchise’s most recent entry, there’s still a lot that can be explored with Duncan. For example,Jurassic World 5could potentially introduce his ex-wife.
InJurassic World Rebirth, it’s mentioned that Duncan and his ex-wife ended their relationship after the death of their child. Losing his child is the reason why Duncan is so determined to protect Isabella. Therefore,Jurassic World 5could further explore Duncan’s grief and potentially turn him into even more of a heroic figure.
Zora & Henry Don’t Need To Return For Jurassic World 5
On a surface level, it would make more sense forJurassic World 5to bring Zora and Henry back, since they are more prominent characters than Duncan. However, unlike Duncan, there is nothing left to explore with Zora and Henry.
ThroughoutJurassic World Rebirth,the main tension between Zora and Henry revolves around what they will do with the dinosaur DNA. On the one hand, they could deliver it to Parker-Genix and make millions of dollars, but Henry suggests that they could also make it open-source, meaning everyone in the world will have access to the life-saving medicine.
By the end of the movie,it is confirmed that Zora and Henry will indeed make the medicine from the dinosaur DNA open-source. EndingJurassic World Rebirthwith this confirmation resolves their main storyline in the film quite nicely. It also means there is no clear direction for whereJurassic World 5could take them.
Furthermore, other than this internal struggle (which is mostly felt by Johansson’s character),Zora and Henry honestly aren’t super interesting characters inJurassic World Rebirth. They are serviceable as the two main characters in the film, but I’m not too interested in learning anything more about their lives after the events of the movie.
Because of this, I believe it would be better forJurassic World 5to move beyond Zora and Henry and pair Duncan up with some new characters. In my opinion, Duncan is the most interesting character, and Ali is arguably the best actor.
Therefore, it would be great to see him return in the franchise’s next movie afterJurassic World Rebirth. And if Zora and Henry don’t come back, that would hopefully result in a much larger role for Duncan than he got here.
