Jurᴀssic World Rebirth introduces a new cast of characters that could all conceivably be part of the franchise’s future. The newest movie in the long-running series primarily follows Scarlett Johansson’s Zora, Jonathan Bailey’s Henry, and Mahershala Ali’s Duncan as they embark on a mission on a remote island to retrieve the DNA of the largest dinosaurs of the land, air, and sea.

The film is meant to start a new era for the franchise after multiple disappointments, but unfortunately, a lot of reviews for Jurᴀssic World Rebirth have been quite negative. Despite this, the movie has been a major box office success, making $769 million globally as of this writing. This haul practically guarantees there will be a Jurᴀssic World 5.

The ending of Jurᴀssic World Rebirth doesn’t necessarily set up a storyline for the next movie, but Zora, Henry, Duncan, and the Delgado family all survive the events of the film. Therefore, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Universal wanted to bring some of them all back for the next movie. However, this would be a mistake. Only one of them should return in Jurᴀssic World 5.

Duncan Should Return In The Next Jurᴀssic World Movie

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth tries its best to honor the legacy of the original Jurᴀssic Park movie. To accomplish this goal, it only made sense for the new movie to include yet another trio. In the original Jurᴀssic Park, Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, and Ian Malcolm make an incredible trio, but only Jeff Goldblum returned for the sequel, 1997’s The Lost World: Jurᴀssic Park.

Therefore, Jurᴀssic World 5 could take inspiration from The Lost World and only bring back one of the main characters from Rebirth. If it does this, then Duncan should definitely be the one to return in the next movie.

To save Isabella and the other characters at the end of Jurᴀssic World Rebirth, Duncan lures the D-rex away with a flare. After making this decision, it seems clear that Duncan will be killed by the terrifying mutant dinosaur. However, even though the D-rex stared him down in the water, the final moments of the movie reveal that Duncan is still alive.

Director Gareth Edwards has revealed that Duncan was supposed to die in Jurᴀssic World Rebirth. However, the studio ultimately suggested that he should live, presumably because they wanted the option to potentially bring Ali back for a sequel. This decision has proven to be divisive, since killing Duncan would have completed his character arc, but perhaps there’s a reason he survived his encounter with the D-rex.

This is an idea that could be explored in Jurᴀssic World 5, which could justify backtracking Duncan’s death at the end of Rebirth. More than any other character in the franchise’s most recent entry, there’s still a lot that can be explored with Duncan. For example, Jurᴀssic World 5 could potentially introduce his ex-wife.

In Jurᴀssic World Rebirth, it’s mentioned that Duncan and his ex-wife ended their relationship after the death of their child. Losing his child is the reason why Duncan is so determined to protect Isabella. Therefore, Jurᴀssic World 5 could further explore Duncan’s grief and potentially turn him into even more of a heroic figure.

Zora & Henry Don’t Need To Return For Jurᴀssic World 5

On a surface level, it would make more sense for Jurᴀssic World 5 to bring Zora and Henry back, since they are more prominent characters than Duncan. However, unlike Duncan, there is nothing left to explore with Zora and Henry.

Throughout Jurᴀssic World Rebirth, the main tension between Zora and Henry revolves around what they will do with the dinosaur DNA. On the one hand, they could deliver it to Parker-Genix and make millions of dollars, but Henry suggests that they could also make it open-source, meaning everyone in the world will have access to the life-saving medicine.

By the end of the movie, it is confirmed that Zora and Henry will indeed make the medicine from the dinosaur DNA open-source. Ending Jurᴀssic World Rebirth with this confirmation resolves their main storyline in the film quite nicely. It also means there is no clear direction for where Jurᴀssic World 5 could take them.

Furthermore, other than this internal struggle (which is mostly felt by Johansson’s character), Zora and Henry honestly aren’t super interesting characters in Jurᴀssic World Rebirth. They are serviceable as the two main characters in the film, but I’m not too interested in learning anything more about their lives after the events of the movie.

Because of this, I believe it would be better for Jurᴀssic World 5 to move beyond Zora and Henry and pair Duncan up with some new characters. In my opinion, Duncan is the most interesting character, and Ali is arguably the best actor.

Therefore, it would be great to see him return in the franchise’s next movie after Jurᴀssic World Rebirth. And if Zora and Henry don’t come back, that would hopefully result in a much larger role for Duncan than he got here.