The “Final Episode” with (nearly) everyone

🦖 Got a minute? Help shape the future of the podcast by filling in this quick form: https://forms.gle/wsz1wNygN4uhe39y5

Hello!

I’m here with the ‘final episode’ of ‘Road to Rebirth’. Thank you all so much for listening along.

Stay tuned for future announcements!

Transcript

SPEAKER_10 0:25

Hello and welcome to the final episode of Road to Rebirth. I'm Roland Squire. I first had the idea for this podcast back in January this year, and for the first time I've managed to actually see a creative endeavour all the way through to its end. My aim was to honour the movie series I love and to assemble a kind of Avengers cast of fans and commentators, people who could help me explore different aspects of the franchise and bring a range of perspectives to the table. Now standing at the end of the road with the film finally out, I'm able to look forward and think about what I want uh the series to become. For me, uh fandom is a kind of therapy. I'm always chasing the feeling I had when I first watched Jurassic Park. Now I'm sure that uh that might be true for a lot of people actually listening to this. The stories uh and the characters come second to that sensation of being six years old again, playing with my Command Compound toy, Christmas and my Kenna Red Rex a a photo of which you can see on the Instagram. Any Jurassic Park or Jurassic film, as we should call them now, that comes after Rebirth, I'm simply hoping that it captures that same magic. Now that might sound regressive to some, but like hearing your favourite song perform live, it's something I'll never get tired of. And I'm genuinely happy that Rebirth fulfilled that for me. Watching it for the first time, the years just fell away. I was fully present with my love for all things Jurassic. One of the things I'm most grateful for is that the film could easily serve as the end of the story. The final scene with the character sailing off on the boat felt like a perfect closing note. Just like Indy riding off into the sunset at the end of The Last Crusade. A scene that always gets me. David Kepp and Gareth Edwards have given the series a possible ending that feels true to the original film's spirit. That being said, now that the film has taken over seven hundred million dollars at the worldwide box office, I think it's uh inevitable that another adventure will follow. When the series does return, I hope Gareth Edwards is still involved. He's hinted in interviews that he has more ideas and some things that he'd really like to see in the films going forward. What they are, I think we can just speculate until we see whatever the next film may be. Over the past week I've reached out to many of the guests who've joined me throughout this podcast, and I asked them for their thoughts on the future of the series and some of their hopes and dreams. And I'm gonna play those dreams for you now.

SPEAKER_12 3:47

Hey everyone. Hey Roland, Stephen Ray Morris here from C Jurassic Right. Again, a big thank you to making such a wonderful show and for having me on earlier this year. And yeah, I can't believe we're I was gonna say post-rebirth. I think we're birth. And yeah, what I'm excited about for the future of this franchise, I think, is that Rebirth showed we could have a lean, mean Jurassic Park film again that captures the tone of the original. But I hope as we get into this new era, we not only expand on the that tone and theme, but we don't forget about the wonderful characters and world building, you know, of the original Jurassic World era, the lore, all the connections. Again, still at the same time just deepening our relationship with dinosaurs in new and exciting ways. Yeah, I don't know. It's just, I think rebirth was a lot of fun, but I want more of dinosaurs and people thrown into the mix together. And whether that's, you know, tackling more of Crichton's themes from the books or just, you know, approaching it from a myriad of different ways, you know, how again, in our, you know, modern world, how our relationship with animals is speaking of animals, Penny Lane, uh, how our relationship with animals and the planet is, you know, fraught right now. I don't know. There's just so much, you know, Jurassic Park has always just been such a great place to explore, yeah, our relationship with the world through these big fun animals. And yeah, I want more, I want more dinosaurs as animals, but I do love how Rebirth, you know, used the Lost World novel as a springboard to get into the sort of Frankenstein's monster of it all and evil corporations. That's right, Penny. Thank you so much, Roland. And yeah, I can't wait to talk to you soon and be excited about what's next.

SPEAKER_11 5:55

Hey everybody, it's Tom Jurassic here. Uh, where the franchise goes next is a really interesting question. I kind of feel like Rebirth was very standalone. Uh, there were elements that could be fleshed out. You know, we could see the backstory of Isle Saint Hubert, but I don't know that we will. So if they want to keep us moving forward and keep telling future stories, I almost feel like all of the stories going forward have to be these kind of standalone set pieces. But then my thought process with that is how do you keep that interesting over a longer period of time? Ie, if we have got certain facilities, if we have got other biogenetics companies out there doing similar stuff, how long can we tell those kinds of stories before they start to get stale? So I think it's really interesting. It's really interesting to think about. I think obviously rebirth does leave some question marks. We have reference to Mr. Parker, so whether we're gonna see him pop up is definitely a question mark. Uh but yeah, I don't really know where we go beyond isolated stories, and I don't think Universal will necessarily want to hone in on very small scale stories because then you only have a couple of dinosaurs and that's not very merchandisable. So it's an interesting question mark. I think we're we're in a really interesting space right now.

SPEAKER_13 7:38

Hey, this is Jarek Davis. I think it's kind of hard to say where I want the franchise to really go at this point. Because we are seven movies in, and with the way that rebirth ended, it felt like a mostly contained story in a way that doesn't really naturally leave itself open for a sequel. At the same time, you know, they did introduce that the dinosaurs are dying out and their only ones really left are on the island or around it. So I don't know. I think most good stories have an ending, at least in my opinion. So I'm hoping that if they do another movie, they give closure to the entire Jurassic story, which is what I know they were originally trying to do with Jurassic World Dominion, but since we've now gone past that movie, I feel like we still need to do something that closes the whole narrative as a whole. I would rather that happen than to be have it dragged out into you know, oblivion. You know, this isn't really the Marvel story where there's different characters and situations that can keep coming in and out of the series. So I'm just hoping that we get some kind of real closure to this Jurassic story.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Hi Roland, this is Samantha. Uh, thank you so much for letting me record uh about Fallen Kingdom with you. It's so much fun talking. And uh now that we've seen Jurassic World Rebirth, um, I just thought I'd give you my hopes and dreams where you know I think the franchise will go in the future. Um I I loved Rebirth. I really did. Um, I think it's probably my third favorite Jurassic movie at this point. Um for future, I I don't really have any posit, you know, like hard, uh hard and fast rules for like what I want to see next. Um I really enjoyed kind of being in the same world, but having all new characters to explore um in rebirth. Um if I have to if I have to have one uh tying feature from from rebirth to a sequel for rebirth, um, I would want Jonathan Bailey to come back. Um I think he him as a paleontologist was just uh it made my day. Um I loved the all the main three characters, but um I think he's who I would want to see again, and I think he would have um, you know, that would be the most logical one to see again, um, because we have, you know, Zora and Duncan kind of both wanting to retire, and they've they've they they deserve to to relax a little bit um after their lives and and what they went through. Um so yeah, I think uh let's get Jonathan Bailey back and he can um, you know, maybe go on more adventures. Maybe Zora is like a Nick Fury and just is like, hey, we're getting a team together. I'm not going. Good luck. Um, and so then, you know, hinting back at the joke that was made and rebirth of uh of um why am I forgetting Jonathan Bailey's character's name, but his name, his character, uh being the leader um of their little group. I think that would be a lot of fun. Um and besides that, just you know, more dinosaur adventures. Um I would like to see something a little more lean into horror a little more. Um, but you know, I also realize that this is a family-friendly franchise for the most part. So um, you know, maybe just uh it doesn't have to be a movie, but maybe see more branching off into uh TV shows and and books and and get horror that way. Um so yeah, I look forward to hearing everyone's thoughts on and where they hope it goes next. Thanks.

SPEAKER_09 11:54

In the vanishingly unlike the event that I got asked to pitch a new Jurassic Park movie, I would suggest they do what the makers of the new Planet of the Apes movies have done. Uh so set the thing up a century or so in the future in a world where dinosaurs haven't just survived but thrived. So they're everywhere. I mean, they've become the dominant species. And humans have been relegated to secondary status or possibly even lower in the pecking order. So perhaps there's been a plague, uh a lethal pandemic, maybe some virus latent in the dyno DNA that's wiped out nine-tenths of the human population. Uh the remainder skulk around in the ruined cities and overgrown countryside, living in well-defended enclaves and scrabbling for survival. Guns are still available, but that's not necessarily a defense against T-Rexes or velociraptors, as we've seen. The vibe I'm going for would be much more one million years BC or a land that time forgot, with a touch of Mad Max and The Last of Us thrown in. Um in that context, I'd like to see things become a bit gory as well, a bit redder in tooth and nail. Dinosaurs get slaughtered, humans get gobbled up, less of this timid, off-screen family-friendly death stuff, and more of the clever girl, lawyer on toilet, British childminder being victimized nastiness, a real sense of peril, almost as if the human race itself is now in danger of going extinct.

SPEAKER_02 13:39

Hey, what's up, Roland? It's Brad from the Jurassic Park Podcast. Uh, I am recording in a car. I'm also a little under the weather, so you have to bear with me. But uh, I wanted to answer your question about uh some hopes and dreams and things I'm looking forward to maybe in the future of the Jurassic franchise after seeing Rebirth Now. Uh I've seen it three times. Yeah, right? That's right. Um, and I don't feel like it's as open-ended as like Frank Marshall was kind of leading us to believe. Um, but there are a few little threads that, you know, we could go down this path or that path. I would like to see them kind of take the approach that the first three movies took with just kind of picking up with a new character, like one of the like picking one of the characters from the first movie and doing a story surrounding them. So for instance, like, you know, seeing Duncan return and just have a movie about Duncan and his life. And then maybe the third movie could be, you know, about Zora Bennett and having like a movie about her life, or then, you know, Henry Loomis, whatever. Um, maybe two characters can cross over at a time. But I I like that idea of focusing individually instead of just here's the trio, here's the core group that we need to see every single time. Um, and getting a new family, I think, would be great. Uh, I loved the family in this movie, but what I liked about the originals, well, I, you know, I think I I would have loved to have seen more from Tim and Lex, but I love that they just did something different and they gave us new characters and new people to latch on to, like, like Kelly, you know, Malcolm's daughter, and and people like Nick Van Owen and Sarah Harding, and then the Kirby's, uh, people like that. But uh, I I want to see like new characters arrive and uh kind of come in with some of the old ones. Also, I think the idea of like seeing what the open source um information would do for like a drug trial or something like that, would it would it be good for humanity? Would it be bad for humanity? I'd like to see where that goes. So those are some of my thoughts right off the top of my head here. Hope you enjoy them. Uh maybe we can expand upon it sometime in the future. But uh, thanks again, man.

SPEAKER_03 15:49

The Jurassic Park films aren't a bad story. If you come to them for that, you're like a diner trying to chew their way through a gall-red bowl of tomato soup. You ordered the wrong dish. Uh Jurassic Park began as a theme park. That's what a laws be. We need inventive set pieces, fresh drops, weird curves, uh, and a cast of characters that we either love or or can't wait to see in a small intestine of something monstrous. Uh as long as he keeps doing that. Uh and it just did. I mean Rupert Fran was born by Wes Anderson or Be Digested, um, then I'll be there.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

When I think about the future of Jurassic, at this point I'm not really sure what's next or what could be next. I'm the way Rebirth ended, it's very strange because I'm not over here brainstorming what's next. You know, when JP3 ended, there was a lot to talk about. Jurassic World, same thing. Fallen Kingdom, even more. You know, where what is it gonna be like with these dinosaurs in the real world? When Dominion ended, same thing. I mean, there was a lot to really brainstorm what is the future, what are they gonna do? How do humans interact with these dinosaurs, like being in our world forever? That's like a whole conversation topic to have. But when Rebirth ends, it just kind of ends. And you know, leaving the theater, it wasn't like, oh, what's next? It was more like that's it, it's it was like a one and done kind of movie. They made it from the island. Are they gonna make an eighth film where they go back to the island? Maybe. I don't know if that's uh an easy thing to market to people where it's like, oh, they're going back again, again, again. Um but yeah, I mean, I just don't know what what the future is or what I really want. I think I would love to see you know a prequel film that takes place between Jurassic Park 3 and Jurassic World. You know, as a fan that waited, you know, 14 years to see a new film. There's a lot that probably happened in that time period. And I would love to see what that story is and kind of fill in that big gap. Like to be able to watch, you know, all the films in a row and not have this massive gap between JP3 and Jurassic World. I don't think they'll do it. I don't think many people beyond you know, some of the diehard fans really, you know, care so much about that. Um But I mean, with Rebirth opening, you know, the opening scene with the D-Rex, that was pretty great. And I I would love to see more of even that. Because I just don't know where they go, you know, from here. And I hope they go back to Sorna, Nublar. I don't know. I really it it's just a weird spot to be in as a fan. You know, a lot of people like the movie, but it doesn't like lead into a question mark of what's next. And that's kind of what I like about you know JP3 and even you know, love them or hate them the Jurassic World films. Love them or hate them the Jurassic World films when they end, there's a lot to talk about. Like you can sit there and have a conversation of like, okay, in this world, what is next? How do the humans respond to these dinosaurs being in our world or you know, what's next with Jurassic Jurassic World? But with this one, I mean they go to the island, they leave. They don't really witness anything beyond that. I mean, sure they have the dyno the DNA and they can help cure a disease, but as far as the story with dinosaurs, I don't know what's next. Um I'm excited to see, and we're very lucky to have, you know, four films in the last ten years, which is a Jurassic Park fan. That's it's pretty impressive. It's pretty cool. Um, and I'm sure they have plenty of ideas that they're working on of you know what's next. And I would hope they make at least one film where there's no kids. Take a break from the kids for one film, um, then they can go back to it, but just mix some mix things up a little bit for the next one. But either way, I'm very excited to see what's next. I just have no idea where they're going.

SPEAKER_07 19:50

Hey there, Connor here, Connor Ontology with my thoughts on where the franchise could go after Rebirth. Now, this is a really interesting kind of thought experiment because to be honest, uh when Dominion came out, I thought that was gonna be it for a long while. Um, it felt like a good place to kind of leave the film franchise and then maybe do some smaller stories around dinosaurs around the world, but obviously that's not the direction we got. We kind of got a bit of a backpedal of where the universe was, and now when we're now back to dinosaurs on the islands. Um, and while I really enjoyed Rebirth as like a fun movie that felt like a callback, it does leave the franchise in kind of an odd spot because with Dominion and Fallen Kingdom, you progress the story to the point in which the overarching kind of threat of the original trilogy, what if dinosaurs escaped into the world's ecosystem? What would happen? That's happened, and now it's been sort of contained and put back in the box. So they need to find a new overarching big threat if they want to turn this into a franchise or a trilogy or whatever. And I think the only way to do that now is through the kind of disease route that was raised in the Lost World novel with DX. And now they've got a good start to that with the medical focused kind of plot line of rebirth. Maybe something goes wrong with the cure, and then they have to get more samples or something like that. But I think it's gonna be really tricky for them to do that because number one, Planet of the Apes has done it recently, um, and also the real-world experience of COVID. I don't know if they'd be willing to go there because of everything that went down there. So it's kind of tricky to see a path ahead that isn't just kind of more of the same of these smaller scale stories that could potentially work. Like the next film could be another group of I don't know, danger tourists that get lost in the island. Um, I don't think they'll go back in time. I think with Rebirth, they've shown they just want to keep going with the franchise. This story really feels like it would have. Made more sense if it was actually set in the early 2010s, um, but it isn't. Uh, I think the fact that now dinosaurs are restricted to the equator regions means that there's still a lot of areas that people can go where there'll be dinosaurs, but it is now gonna be increasingly more of a stretch of like why it's important to go there and what they're gonna do, um, especially when you're considering the general audiences already think that every film's like, why are they making new Jurassic Park? Obviously, they're not right, but that's gonna be really hard to grapple with now. Um, after letting it all out and then bringing it all back in, I think the franchise is actually in a really tricky spot. Um, it might have been written into a bit of a corner. I'd be happy to be proven wrong. I'm sure there's lots of amazing screenwriters and filmmakers that can do a lot with this, but yeah, um, I think for me, if they're gonna keep on going, they need to really sell us on that kind of that big scale threat in which Dominion realised but not quite fully, and now we've moved on. We need something that is oh my god, this is why it's bad that dinosaurs and pre-sect life have been brought back. That's what we need from the future of this franchise if it's going to continue with stakes that matter.

SPEAKER_08 23:17

Hey everyone, it's uh Sam Phillips here who was on the Jurassic World Dominion episode of Road to Rebirth. Um, my hopes and dreams for the Jurassic World franchise after Rebirth. Um I would like um, I mean, it's kind of a two-way um answer for me. You know, I would like if the films are kind of holding themselves separate to the first two trilogies, you know, I'd like them to be a little bit more standalone rather than kind of muddying the water of say like the lore and uh events that had happened before it, you know, it'd be cool to have the the ongoing um series if it was completely separate to actually be completely separate, you know, new isolated incidents, you know, in in in the real world, which I'm not sure how we're gonna see that now with um the uh the dinosaurs uh only living on, or most dinosaurs are only living on the equator, but you know, it'd be cool to have kind of like you know, as I said, standalone stories uh opposite to that. If it's not, I would like it to be more um you know in line, not in line, but more tied into at least the Jurassic World trilogy. It'd be cool to see uh Owen and Claire and maybe even Maisie show up in uh future entries, um, you know, kind of like their paths are crossed with uh you know Zora and um Loomis and all of that. So yeah. Um but as long as you know the it nothing is shoehorned, um, it's well written and well thought about in the uh grand scheme of things, and um yeah, nothing is uh nothing is uh retconned uh except for Jurassic Part 3. Um they can retcon that uh for all I care, but um I hope they retcon it. But um yeah, let's just hope that um it's fun for everyone, new audiences, new fans, old fans, adults, kids, you know, everyone deserves a good Jurassic movie. So let's hope that's what we get.

SPEAKER_06 25:19

Hey Roland, it is Caleb Burnett, and uh I'm on a walk outside, so I apologize in advance for any outside noises and birds and things, but um uh after seeing Rebirth and enjoying it as much as I did, uh I definitely have some sequel ideas. I definitely have some thoughts and hopes for the future. Um and the first thing that comes to mind is um if there if any character was to return in the future, if there could only be one, um, I would want it to be Dr. Henry Loomis. Um I enjoyed him the most in Rebirth, and I think you know, him being a paleontologist, it would could make a lot of sense for him to return in a future movie and uh have a story around him with the state of the world and the state of dinosaurs in the Jurassic franchise. Um I also have high hopes that they um retain the whole tone that they've been going for, uh that they've sort of shifted to with rebirth, um, and also that they, you know, keep the science in it and keep the sort of like medical aspects to it as well. I think there could be a great story to be told as far as maybe a DX disease type thing, um, like in the novels or or something like that. Um I don't know. I think there are a lot of possibilities as far as the story goes. I we would love to know more about Al St. Hubert as well. Um but yeah, I hope we uh move forward with some of those ideas, and I really am excited to move forward with a lot of these new ideas that Rebirth introduced. Um and so yeah, Dr. Henry Loomis. That's my main uh hope, honestly, for the future at this point is like, you know, I don't I don't know if anybody else needs to return. Um I kind of hope David Kepp does, but um yeah, Dr. Henry Loomis, I think we could build a lot on that, and he would be a great character to uh build the future of the Jurassic franchise on. So yeah.

SPEAKER_10 27:36

Huge thanks to Stephen Ray Morris, Tom Jurassic, Derek Davis, Samantha Andrez, James Lovegrove, Brad Jost, Guy Adams, Daniel Stephen, Connor O'Keefe, Sam Phillips, and Caleb Burnett for sending me their thoughts about the future their their thoughts about the hopes and dreams of this franchise. This series would have been far poorer without your insight and enthusiasm. This year I feel like I've truly discovered my tribe. This is my tribe. I'm speaking to them right now, and I love it, so thank you all for listening. And also for your comments and emails. I I just wish we could all have some sort of big end-of-term party. But what happens next? Well, it's true that this is the final episode of Road to Rebirth, but it's not the end of the road, however far I can stretch that metaphor. I'm currently working on a new longer running podcast covering all things Jurassic, and I can now reveal that the new show will be called The Pirates Don't Eat the Tourists. It's my favourite line from the original film. Thank you, David Kepp. But now I'm handing it over to you. I might not be doing many episodes for the rest of August, so I want to hear from you. I want to know what you want to listen to in the future. Right at the top of the show notes for this episode, and actually all of the episodes from this series, you'll find a link to a Google feedback form. I'd really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes, just fill it out. It'll really help shape what I do next. And the one thing I can promise is that the future for Jurassic is exciting. And unlike 2001, I don't think we'll be waiting another 14 years. But for now, I'll just say thank you very much for listening and goodbye. Oh. If you're still here, here's a couple of outtakes from the recording sessions. Right now. Is it working? It's telling me I'm live streaming now to Riverside, which I don't know why it wants me to do that.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

Hey everybody, we're live.

SPEAKER_10 29:57

Literally nobody's there.

SPEAKER_04 29:59

Make special features and write essays and ignore the door value bastards. I mean, that's just evil, right?

SPEAKER_05 30:10

I'm so sorry. No, don't worry. So that that's an edit point for you. Yes, that's an edit point. Or we keep it in.

SPEAKER_04 30:19

Um probably uh Bob Peck outside still hunting uh immortal.