One issue screenwriters have periodcially faced, when dealing with the long-running Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchises, is that it’s hard to ascribe a lot of intent to the “villains” of each film. (By which we mean the dinosaurs, and not the eight million evil scientists and corrupt executives in this world who always think “tourist buffet” is an acceptable outcome for a theme park trip.) These are, after all, essentially just animal attack movies being made on a very large scale, a reality which has led writers to pull a lot of silly shit to introduce some villainous weight to their stories—most notably the characterization of Jurassic World’s centerpiece dino, hybrid creation Indominus rex, as a sort of dinosaur sociopath, lacking regular, uh, dinosaur morals. (Somewhere, we sense a fictional Jeff Golblum just began stammering in indignation at that idea.)
Now, regular franchise director Colin Trevorrow (returning to Jurassic after skipping World sequel Fallen Kingdom to, well, not make a Star Wars movie) has suggested that we’ll be getting an even more twisted take on a bad dinosaur with his new movie, Jurassic World: Dominion. That’s per an interview Trevorrow gave to Empire this week, along with a new photo of the film’s Gigantosaurus, calling it—and, we swear, we are not making this quote up—“like the Joker.”
God, how pissed must Jared Leto be that he didn’t get this call?
Trevorrow “elaborates” that he means that the Giga “just wants to watch the world burn,” as opposed to regular dinosaurs, who think deep thoughts about ecology and the environment and ethics before they spit a bunch of poison goo in Wayne Knight’s face, we’re sure.
Really, it’s just a very funny response to the constant problem of how you escalate in a franchise that started with “All the coolest dinosaurs that ever existed are trying to eat our heroes.” After all, what’s scarier than a giant amoral lizard that eats flesh and has knives for teeth? One who wants to show you a magic trick, we guess.
Dominion hits theaters on June 10. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are both set to return to star, alongside long-time franchise friends Goldblum, Sam Neill, and Laura Dern.
