Gareth Edwards’ upcoming dinosaur adventure movie Jurᴀssic World Rebirth moves the beloved sci-fi franchise in a new direction, and won’t feature the star of the previous trilogy, Chris Pratt. The seventh feature film in the Jurᴀssic Park franchise, Jurᴀssic World Rebirth will hit theaters in summer 2025 and feature a brand-new cast of characters led by Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and Jonathan Bailey. The new movie takes the cast to a previously unexplored island in the Jurᴀssic Park universe, where they plan to hunt for DNA samples from some of the world’s largest living dinosaurs.

While each entry in the Jurᴀssic World trilogy still racked up hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, the quality of the movies decreased with each sequel, culminating with Jurᴀssic World Dominion, which garnered the lowest overall ratings of the franchise. While that movie acted as a reunion of the casts of both the Jurᴀssic Park trilogy and the Jurᴀssic World trilogy, no major stars from either trilogy are set to appear in Jurᴀssic World Rebirth, including Chris Pratt’s velociraptor-training former military man, Owen Grady.

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth Is A Soft Reboot Of The Franchise

The Movie Picks Up A Completely New Plot With New Characters

While it will still continue following the timeline begun by its predecessors, Jurᴀssic World Rebirth will essentially act as a reset ʙuттon for the franchise. Set five years after the events of Jurᴀssic World Dominion, the movie will follow Scarlett Johansson’s Zora Bennett, a special operative tasked with getting paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Bailey) onto a forbidden island which housed the original park’s research facility so that they can collect DNA from the three largest species from the land, air, and sea. Predictably, their mission goes sideways, and dinosaur-focused terror ensues.

Jurᴀssic World Dominion acted as a sort of exclamation point for the first six movies of the Jurᴀssic Park franchise, as it brought the characters from both trilogies together and ended where the franchise was always destined: with dinosaurs loose in the world. After what essentially amounted to a finale, it made sense to move the franchise forward with new characters and a time jump. As a result, Chris Pratt’s fan-favorite character Owen Grady was axed from the new adventure, even if it would have been easy to write him in given his extensive experience with the dinosaurs.

What Chris Pratt Has Said About Returning To Jurᴀssic World

The Star Left The Door Open For His Return To The Franchise

Chris Pratt has previously played coy about his return to the franchise, failing to provide a definitive answer in one direction or the other. In May 2024 Pratt told moviegoers they would “just have to tune in,” to see if he would make an appearance in the fourth Jurᴀssic World movie. However, all signs point to him having no role at all in the franchise’s seventh film, although a brief cameo, name-drop, or appearance in a post-credits scene is forever a possibility for a franchise with the box office clout of Jurᴀssic World.

Pratt could certainly follow the same pattern as the original trilogy’s stars. Just as Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Golblum did, he could skip the first movie to let the new cast establish themselves as the franchise’s stars, and then play a secondary role in future installments. Pratt’s enthusiasm for the franchise is still intact by his own admission, so the door is very much open for his return.

Jurᴀssic World Moving On From Chris Pratt Makes Sense

The Franchise Is In Desperate Need Of A New Direction

While Chris Pratt still has undeniable star power and box office pull, moving on from him was the right choice for the franchise based on how the Jurᴀssic World trilogy ended. Jurᴀssic World Dominion was almost universally maligned, as it currently holds a stunningly low 29% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer based on the reviews of over 400 verified critics. With the franchise hitting that record low, it was clear that the nostalgia and lackluster new concepts had been played out, and the series was in need of a refresh.

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth is poised to do just that, because in addition to introducing a star-studded and talented new cast, it is returning the franchise to its roots. It will follow a small group exploring a secluded island just as the first trilogy did, completely overwhelmed by the awesome might of the dinosaurs they encounter. It will also fold in a brand-new element: hybrid, mutated dinosaurs the likes of which the world has never seen. Regardless of how much star power Chris Pratt has, Jurᴀssic World Rebirth moving in a new direction without him is probably for the best.