Jurᴀssic World Rebirth is finally here, and director Gareth Edwards has just confirmed a major fan theory about the film’s biggest new dinosaur, the Distortus rex. Jurᴀssic World Rebirth sees its main characters go to an island full of experimental dinosaurs, and while many of the film’s new additions are cool, the D-Rex is the biggest standout from the movie.

Speaking with Screen Rant’s Liam Crowley, Jurᴀssic World Rebirth director Gareth Edwards touched on some of the inspirations of the new mutant dinosaur, confirming that the Xenomorph from Alien and the Rancor from Star Wars were two major inspirations. Edwards also explained that a regular T. Rex was another addition. When asked about the character of the D-Rex by the animators, Edwards said “‘go rewatch David Lynch’s The Elephant Man.‘”

Edwards goes into detail about how the movement and behavior of the D-Rex were decided on, and how the creature’s mutant origins played a role in these decisions. Edwards explains that these mutant dinosaurs have “got breathing difficulties and they can’t quite walk properly and things like this” and that “you start to feel a bit of empathy” after being initially scared by the monsters. Here are Gareth Edwards’ full comments:

Liam Crowley: Something that scared the s–t out of me, I can’t mince my words, is the D-Rex. Oh my God. You bookended this film with the D-Rex. We obviously got a little taste in the opening scene and then we got a full on clearer sH๏τ in the third act. I love how whenever there’s the scary dinosaurs at night, you only get the lighting through the way of the flares, I think it’s such a genius way to shoot it. The D-Rex gave me vibes of a Xenomorph, a Rancor from Star Wars, and a little bit of the Cloverfield monster as well. What were your inspirations when it came to crafting the D-Rex?

Gareth Edwards: You got two of them. The other ones were a T-Rex and then the animators started animating. It was funny because you could write in a script, imagine we were dinosaurs making a movie about humans. You could write in a script, ‘And then a human appears,’ and that’s all the information you’d ever need. And the animators obvious say, ‘Which human, how is he behaving, what kind of actor?’ And when you build these models of these creatures, they’re all built very static. It’s called a T-pose or this very sort of default pose. And they look terrible. And they only really come to life when they’ve been posed and they’ve got a bit of an atтιтude. And so they were like, ‘Well, what’s the atтιтude? What’s the character?’ And had to think about it for a second. I was like, ‘Okay, go rewatch David Lynch’s The Elephant Man.’ It was this idea of someone who didn’t choose for this to happen to them. You might be afraid of them and want them gone, but you start to feel a bit of empathy. They’ve got breathing difficulties and they can’t quite walk properly and things like this. And I like that being torn between it’s a monster and I want to get rid of it, but I feel a bit sorry for it as well.

Liam Crowley: Yeah. What were the two that I got right?

Gareth Edwards: Oh, the Xenomorph and Rancor. Yeah.

What The D-Rex’s Inspirations Mean For Jurᴀssic World Rebirth

How It Could Impact Future Jurᴀssic World Movies

Using the Xenomorph and Rancor as inspiration for the D-Rex signals the direction that this new Jurᴀssic World saga may be taking. Despite the stories being more grounded, the dinosaurs are more alien than ever. These mutated dinosaurs are horrifying additions to the franchise, and it is possible that future movies could pull from more cinematic aliens if Jurᴀssic World Rebirth gets a sequel.

However, being inspired by cinematic villains isn’t new for Jurᴀssic World‘s dinosaurs. Jurᴀssic World Dominion director Colin Trevorrow famously compared the film’s Giganotosaurus was inspired by the Joker from DC Comics, as the dinosaur “just wants to watch the world burn.” The alien monster inspirations may be more apt for a dinosaur character, but it shows that this franchise trend is continuing.

Our Take On Jurᴀssic World Rebirth’s D-Rex

It Isn’t Much More Interesting Than The T-Rex

While the D-Rex has a cool design, it doesn’t add much to the story of Jurᴀssic World Rebirth that the T-Rex doesn’t already have. The T-Rex is already a mᴀssive beast with excellent hunting skills that wants to eat the protagonists, and the D-Rex is essentially the same thing. The D-Rex doesn’t have any unique powers, and it isn’t much more threatening than the original Jurᴀssic Park antagonist.

However, the D-Rex is a good starting point for future Jurᴀssic World movies. Dinosaurs with more unique powers could be added to a Jurᴀssic World Rebirth sequel, making it a realistic escalation of the stakes from a T-Rex.