Now that her time with the Avengers has concluded, Scarlett Johansson could hardly contain her excitement about joining the Jurassic Park franchise.
Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World trilogy came to its conclusion in 2022 with Jurassic World: Dominion. It didn’t take long for Universal to move forward with a follow-up despite the arc for those characters coming to an end. Production has just taken off and the new Jurassic World movie will be filming in Thailand through July 16th, with locations including Bangkok, Trang, Phang Nga, Phuket, Chiang Mai and the Huai To Waterfall, which is within the Khao Phanom Bencha National Park in Krabi province. Filming at the waterfall is expected to take a full week. Outside of Thailand, the movie will be filming at studios in Malta and the U.K.
The writer of the two original Spielberg movies, David Koepp, returns to the series with this sequel and the star, Scarlett Johansson, couldn’t be more excited as she spoke about the project with ComicBook.com. According to Variety, the Black Widow actress said, “I am an enormous Jurassic Park fan. It is one of the first movies I remember seeing in theaters. I remember it so vividly. It was life-changing and mind-blowing. I cannot express how excited I am.” She continued to say, “The script is so incredible.” She expounded even further, “David Koepp wrote it and returned after 30 years to write it and he’s so passionate about it. I’ve been trying to get into this franchise in any possible way for over 10 years. I’m like, ‘I’ll die in the first five minutes! I can get eaten by whatever! I’ll do the craft service!’ I’ll do anything for it. The fact that it’s happened in this way at this time just is actually unbelievable.”
Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick) was also offered a role, but he turned it down because he felt his presence in the movie wouldn’t help it. He did say that the script is great, though. Koepp’s script is said to be a completely fresh take, launching a new Jurassic era, following three adults and three teens getting stuck on the Island. Apparently, the project is being referred to as Jurassic World 4 and/or Jurassic City by those who are working on it. However, it’s not expected that either of those will become the final title.
We do know that this new Jurassic World movie won’t be featuring any returning lead characters from the previous Jurassic Park / Jurassic World movies. Those played by Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, and Laura Dern are out, as are the ones played by Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. The new characters are set to be played by the likes of Mahershala Ali (Green Book), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton), Rupert Friend (Anatomy of a Scandal), and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (The Lincoln Lawyer) – all of whom had their roles directly offered to them. Luna Blaise (Manifest), on the other hand, has been said to have “beat out a number of actors” when she landed her role.