‘Jurassic World Dominion’: Director Colin Trevorrow Explains Why Tim and Lex From ‘Jurassic Park’ Aren’t in the Movie: ‘We Really Needed to Be Careful’
Jurassic World Dominion is unlike any of the movies to come before it. The final installment in the Jurassic World trilogy takes a different approach to special effects than the first two entries in the series. The latest dinosaur trilogy has been largely self-contained, but Dominion brings back several characters from Jurassic Park. The nostalgia train didn’t stop to pick up Tim and Lex, who don’t appear in the movie. Director Colin Trevorrow explains why.
‘Jurassic World Dominion’ brings back five characters from ‘Jurassic Park’
Jurassic World Dominion exists firmly in its own space, but it’s also as close to a Jurassic Park movie as we’ve seen since the original.
BD Wong, who played Dr. Henry Wu in the original, reprises the role in all three Jurassic World movies. Now he has some company.
Trevorrow brought back Laura Dern (Dr. Ellie Sattler), Jeff Goldblum (Ian Malcolm), and Sam Neill (Dr. Alan Grant) for Dominion, and they quickly fell in step as if no time had passed. Goldblum appeared in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and Neill starred in Jurassic Park III. Goldblum also returned to play Malcolm in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, but the stars of the original have never been in the same Jurassic movie until now.
The new film even brings back Lewis Dodgson. In the first movie, the character memorably gave Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) a fake can of shaving cream to smuggle the embryos out of Jurassic Park. The recast role sees Campbell Scott step in for original actor Cameron Thor.
With so many characters from Jurassic Park in Jurassic World Dominion, why not include Tim and Lex? Trevorrow has his reasons.
Colin Trevorrow explains why Tim and Lex don’t appear in ‘Jurassic World Dominion’
Dr. Grant doesn’t necessarily get along with kids in the original Jurassic Park. So, of course, when mayhem strikes, he has to traverse the park with Tim (Joseph Mazzello) and Lex (Ariana Richards), the grandchildren of park founder John Hammond.
Trevorrow wanted to avoid having a parade of guest stars as much as possible, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Bringing back Tim and Lex would have felt like overkill, and it would have distracted the audience.
“Every one of these characters takes up so much oxygen in every room they step into that we really needed to be careful and thoughtful. I’ve always tried to keep a good sense of when it would start to feel like a Love Boat episode or something. Where it’s just like, ‘Who’s the special guest in this scene?’ And we have five characters from Jurassic Park. BD Wong has been in all three of these movies, and he’s a major character in this film. And so when you’re looking at a movie like Jurassic Park, which probably had a total of eight characters and five of them are in this movie, that actually is a lot.”
Colin Trevorrow
The characters Mazzello and Richards played were front and center in Jurassic Park, but they didn’t drive the story. Bringing back Wong, Dern, Goldblum, and Neill seems like a more seamless way to bake in the nostalgia.
What have Mazzello and Richards done since ‘Jurassic Park’?
Mazzello played inquisitive youngster Tim in Jurassic Park, and Richards played his older sister, Lex.
Richards appeared in The Lost World and acted in an episode of Boy Meets World, a Ben Folds music video, and Tremors 3 after Jurassic Park, according to IMDb. Her last role came in the 2013 TV movie Battledogs.
Mazzello also appeared in The Lost World, and he has several other notable movies on his resumé, per IMDb. He acted in Simon Birch, The Social Network, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, and he played John Deacon in Bohemian Rhapsody.
Will Mazzello and Richards have a chance to appear in another ‘Jurassic’ movie?
Jurassic World Dominion closes Trevorrow’s trilogy, but we could see more Jurassic movies in the future.
Jurassic World star Chris Pratt compared Jurassic World to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with its potential to continue evolving with new characters, and he left the door open for his return if the franchise moves forward. Producer Frank Marshall told Collider (via SyFy) that Dominion marks the start of a new era, which sounds like a wide-open door for more dinosaur disaster movies.
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