Jurassic World Rebirth Director On Why We Love the Franchise So Much: "You Want to Be Scared"
We love to scare ourselves silly through movies and no franchise does it better than Jurassic!
There's no two ways about it: Humans love scaring themselves silly, especially when said thrills occur "in a space that we know is actually not objectively dangerous," Michele Bedard-Gilligan, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine, explained in 2023. “I also think there's an element of it where that kind of scare, and surviving that kind of scare, leads us to feel good. We feel confident, right? Like, ‘We did it! We survived the danger.’”
Film, of course, is a great medium for vicarious screams, and no franchise does it better than the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World films (all of which are now streaming on Peacock), which officially returns to theaters next month with Jurassic World Rebirth (click here for tickets). "It's why you come to see a Jurassic film, I think you want to be scared," Rebirth director Gareth Edwards (Godzilla, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) says in a brand-new featurette (see below).
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"What I always think of when I think of the Jurassic films, is you're dealing with dinosaurs that are more dangerous and terrifying than you could possibly imagine," notes Scarlett Johansson, who leads the sequel as Zora Bennett, a former special forces operative hired to lead a dangerous mission to InGen's original research facility for Jurassic Park.
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"More dangerous and terrifying" is exactly right, because this research facility is chock-full of mutant rejects not suitable for the original theme park. Most spine-chilling among these genetically engineered affronts to nature is the Distortus Rex, an early stab at trying to clone a T. rex that went horribly wrong. You can get a better look at the new Big Dino-Bad in the footage below!
Get a fresh look at Jurassic World Rebirth in new behind-the-scenes featurette
In addition to Johansson, the film (written by original Jurassic scribe David Koepp) also stars Mahershala Ali (Green Book), Rupert Friend (Asteroid City), Jonathan Bailey (Wicked), Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (The Lincoln Lawyer), Luna Blaise (Manifest), David Iacono (The Summer I Turned Pretty), Audrina Miranda (Lopez vs. Lopez), Philippine Velge (Station Eleven), Bechir Sylvain (BMF), and Ed Skrein (Deadpool).
Jurassic World Rebirth stomps into theaters everywhere Wednesday, July 2. Click here for tickets! If you'd like to catch up on the saga thus far, the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World trilogies are now streaming on Peacock.
