Chris Pratt has expressed openness to reprising his role as Owen Grady in the Jurassic World franchise, despite his character’s supposed final appearance in Dominion. Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, hosted by Josh Horowitz, Pratt entertained the possibility of joining forces with Scarlett Johansson’s character, Zora Bennett, from Jurassic World Rebirth.
“Maybe, yeah—I think so,” Pratt said.
That’d be awesome. I love that character, I love the team, I love Universal, [and] I love Scarlett. I think that would be epic. We’d just have to do it in a way that honors the stories that we told the first three times.
This enthusiasm shows Pratt’s appreciation for the character and franchise, leaving the door open for his return if future projects allow.
Jurassic World Rebirth’s Fresh Approach to the Franchise
Jurassic World Rebirth, written by David Koepp—who also scripted Jurassic Park and The Lost World—and directed by Gareth Edwards, served as a soft reboot for the iconic dinosaur series. Executive producer Steven Spielberg returned to guide the project, which shifted away from the previous storyline where humans attempted to live alongside dinosaurs on the mainland. Instead, the film focuses on a new remote island overrun by dangerous prehistoric creatures.
The plot centers on Zora Bennett, a covert ops-trained mercenary hired by pharmaceutical executive Martin Krebs (played by Rupert Friend) for a mission to retrieve valuable DNA samples from the largest and deadliest dinosaurs spanning land, air, and sea.
Longtime Jurassic producer Frank Marshall explained the film’s creative vision:
We wanted a film that felt like a fresh start while remaining in the world of the previous films,
he said.
We continue to develop the idea that ‘life finds a way’ with a different kind of story that combines heist-movie adventure with creature-feature horror. We have new characters, a new setting, and new dinosaurs, some of which have gone very, very bad. At the same time, what I find exciting about Rebirth is that it finds a tone that harkens back to the original Jurassic Park. And that has a lot to do with the creative team we assembled for this one.
The Future of the Jurassic World Series Amid Mixed Reception
Although Jurassic World Rebirth received mixed reviews from critics, it succeeded at the box office by earning nearly $870 million worldwide. While this falls short compared to the first three films of the Colin Trevorrow trilogy, each of which surpassed $1 billion globally, it reaffirmed the franchise’s strong commercial potential.
An eighth installment in the Jurassic World universe is widely anticipated, though there has been no official announcement from Universal Pictures. Given the franchise’s enduring popularity and profitability, it is expected that the series will continue to evolve and return, keeping fans eagerly waiting for new adventures involving characters like Owen Grady and possibly Zora Bennett.
