Jurᴀssic World Rebirth will not include the franchise’s biggest characters, but the movie is poised to be better off without them. In 2022’s Jurᴀssic World Dominion, characters from the original Jurᴀssic Park movies, including Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and Ian Malcom (Jeff Goldblum) teamed up with Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard). It was a culmination of familiar characters from the Jurᴀssic Park and Jurᴀssic World trilogies, and marked the first time Alan, Ellie, and Ian have been in a story together since 1993’s Jurᴀssic Park.

Three years later, the franchise is now moving in a different direction with the story of Jurᴀssic World Rebirth. Directed by Rogue One: A Star Wars Story‘s Gareth Edwards, Jurᴀssic World Rebirth‘s cast is led by Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali, all of whom are playing new characters. While there are already significant connections and parallels to previous movies, the latest installment is making an effort to feel distinct and to avoid relying on legacy characters.

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth’s Cast Doesn’t Include Any Returning Characters

They Are Not Part Of The Adventure This Time

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Johansson, Bailey, and Ali are the faces of Jurᴀssic World Rebirth‘s cast, which does not include any returning characters. Alan, Ellie, Ian, Owen, Claire, Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), Henry Wu (BD Wong), and Kayla Watts (Dewanda Wise) are among the familiar characters who survived the events of Jurᴀssic World Dominion and who could have returned. There is potentially more story to explore with all these characters, especially after Alan and Ellie’s romantic relationship was officially rekindled during Jurᴀssic World Dominion‘s ending.

Despite this potential, and even though Alan, Ellie, and Ian are beloved characters, they are not returning for Jurᴀssic World Rebirth. This is the first time that one of the sequels has not relied on legacy characters, as either Alan, Ellie, Ian, or Wu have appeared in every Jurᴀssic Park and Jurᴀssic World movie so far. Returning characters has often been one of the sequels’ main selling points, especially in the marketing for Jurᴀssic World Dominion, but that is not what the franchise is focusing on this time when marketing Rebirth.

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth Is Still Connecting To The Previous Movies Without Returning Characters

There Are Timeline & Setting Connections

The lack of returning characters does not take away from the prominent and meaningful connections that Jurᴀssic World Rebirth has to the previous movies. The Jurᴀssic franchise’s timeline places the new movie five years after the events of Dominion, when humans and dinosaurs were adapting to coexisting together. This coexistence first became a reality after Maisie unleashed the dinosaurs into the world at the end of Jurᴀssic World: Fallen Kingdom. Coexistence has proven challenging for the dinosaurs, though, who have been dying out due to their inability to survive in a modern climate, and have migrated back to tropical regions.

Another important connection to the previous movies is the island where Jurᴀssic World Rebirth takes place. This island contains a secret research facility connected to Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna and was where the “worst of the worst” dinosaurs were kept, meaning those who were deemed too dangerous to be included in the original Jurᴀssic Park. The setting is technically new and has not appeared in the other movies, but it has deep ties to Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna, and is expanding the universe’s lore in exciting ways.

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth Is Meant To Be A Fresh Start For The Series

It Is A Soft Reboot

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth belongs to the same canon as the prior movies, but it is also meant to be a fresh start and a soft reboot for the franchise. The тιтle does a concise and effective job of communicating this, making it clear this is still part of Jurᴀssic World while also being a “rebirth” for the fictional universe. A key facet of this rebirth are the new characters, including Zora Bennett (Johansson), Henry Loomis (Bailey), Duncan Kincaid (Ali), and Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), as the new trilogy is about them and not about characters from the other movies.

Disconnecting from the cast in the previous movies makes sense as a way to make a fresh start more feasible. Jurᴀssic World Rebirth‘s new characters do not come with any of the baggage, expectations, or past disappointments that are ᴀssociated with existing characters, which is an issue that many popular franchises face. This can make it a worthy soft reboot for longtime fans while also being a fully accessible entry point for newer viewers. Such a balance is ideal and creates a better chance of success for the franchise’s longevity.

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth Doesn’t Need Returning Characters To Be Great

Other Elements Make It Compelling

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth is exciting on its own merits and does not need returning characters to reach its full potential. Instead of relying on familiar faces, Rebirth is relying on the franchise’s original genre and narrative template. The Jurᴀssic World trilogy leaned more heavily on the action genre than the horror genre, even though horror was a key component of the original Jurᴀssic Park movies. Rebirth is going back to more of a blend of action and horror, which will manifest through the unparalleled dangers of the dinosaurs that Zora, Henry, and Duncan will encounter.

Every Jurᴀssic Park sequel has tried to use familiar characters as a way to capture the original movie’s magic, yet none of the sequels have lived up to these heights. Fortunately, Rebirth has no intention of making the same mistake, and is instead looking at other elements of the first movie that can be replicated in a way that feels fresh. The screenplay being written by David Koepp, who also wrote the screenplays for Jurᴀssic Park and The Lost World, is a promising sign that Rebirth can pull off this feat.

The absence of returning characters also means that the stakes can feel more real for the new characters. Especially when it came to the trio of Alan, Ellie, and Ian, it became increasingly unlikely that the franchise would kill them off, and this diminished their life-or-death stakes. Zora, Henry, Duncan, and the other new characters will not have the same kind of plot armor. With there being plans for a new trilogy, some of them will probably survive, but not all of them may survive Jurᴀssic World Rebirth, and a new main character dying would definitely elevate the stakes.