After Jurᴀssic World Rebirth, it’s essential that the next movie in the franchise redeems one fan-favorite dinosaur species. There are plenty of dinosaurs in Jurᴀssic World Rebirth, some of which have appeared in numerous films, such as the T. rex, the Mosasaurus, and the Spinosaurus. However, the franchise’s newest movie also focused on some brand-new hybrid dinosaurs: Mutadons and the menacing D-rex.

The inclusion of the Mutadons and the D-rex led to many thrills at the end of Jurᴀssic World Rebirth. However, overall, critics and fans were quite underwhelmed by the movie, and many reviews for Jurᴀssic World Rebirth have been quite negative. This is disappointing, especially since it was meant to start a new era for the franchise.

However, it was undoubtedly a major box office success. As of this writing, it has managed to gross $828 million at the worldwide box office (via Box Office Mojo), which basically guarantees that Jurᴀssic World 5 will happen. Even though Rebirth wasn’t quite a return to form, Jurᴀssic World 5 is still exciting, and hopefully it can finally make raptors scary again.

Raptors Were Replaced In Jurᴀssic World Rebirth

Surprisingly, raptors are barely featured in Jurᴀssic World Rebirth. About halfway through the movie, after the Delgado family gets stranded on Île Saint-Hubert, Xavier goes to relieve himself in the middle of the night. Two raptors slowly sneak up on him, but the ᴅᴇᴀᴅly dinosaurs never make it since they both get snatched up by Mutadons.

Xavier doesn’t see this happen, so he never really finds out how much danger he was in. As we have seen in previous Jurᴀssic movies, raptors are one of the most dangerous dinosaur species to encounter. One of the series’ most iconic scenes is when the pack of raptors is hunting Lex and Tim in the kitchen in the original Jurᴀssic Park.

Rebirth recreated many Jurᴀssic Park scenes, but the thrilling kitchen sequence was not one of them. In fact, Xavier going to the bathroom is the only time that raptors are seen in Rebirth. The movie failed to portray raptors as some of the most dangerous dinosaurs in the entire franchise, which is a shame.

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth essentially replaced them with Mutadons. Showing the two raptors easily get snatched up by Mutadons immediately establishes that the hybrid dinosaurs are way stronger. Mutadons return at the end of the movie and create many problems for the characters, while raptors are nowhere to be seen.

However, raptors were initially supposed to reappear at the end of Jurᴀssic World Rebirth. As posted by The Hollywood Reporter on X/Twitter, a group of raptors emerge from the smoke and approach the characters in a deleted scene that was originally planned to be part of the movie’s climax. Since this scene was deleted, it’s easy to forget that raptors are in Jurᴀssic World Rebirth at all.

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Even if this deleted scene was featured in the movie, it still wouldn’t have portrayed raptors in the way they deserve. During this scene, the group of raptors run away from the characters since they are clearly scared of the unseen D-rex, which is making its way towards the abandoned Île Saint-Hubert village. Therefore, raptors were never planned to have a menacing role in Jurᴀssic World Rebirth.

The Previous Jurᴀssic World Movies Also Misused Raptors

Compared to Rebirth, the previous three Jurᴀssic World movies featured raptors way more. However, they also made them appear far less intimidating than they should be. The first Jurᴀssic World movie showed Owen training a pack of raptors. Owen establishing a strong bond with the raptors, especially Blue, was an interesting storyline, but completely changed how viewers perceived the dinosaur species.

In the first three Jurᴀssic Park movies, raptors were terrifying creatures that killed many characters. In addition to the aforementioned kitchen sequence, the very first scene in Jurᴀssic Park featured a dinosaur handler getting killed by a raptor. They should definitely be one of the scariest species in the franchise.

Instead, the first three Jurᴀssic World movies treated raptors as allies for Owen and the other characters. Obviously, Blue and the other raptors in his pack were still very dangerous, but they never necessarily made viewers uneasy since they would never turn on the main characters. It’s now well past time to make raptors scary again in the Jurᴀssic franchise.

After they were completely underused in Rebirth, Jurᴀssic World 5 definitely needs to make raptors one of the most prominent dinosaur species. Since Rebirth was just released, no details are known about the franchise’s next movie. However, it’s possible that Jurᴀssic World 5‘s characters will visit Île Saint-Hubert, which could allow raptors to get revenge against the Mutadons.

If it’s instead set on a different island, then raptors should still be shown as terrifying predators. If this isn’t the case, then raptors might never be taken seriously in the franchise again. This would be incredibly disappointing, so I hope Jurᴀssic World Rebirth wasn’t the beginning of the downfall of raptors.