Why Chris Pratt Isn't In Jurassic World Rebirth

While each entry in the Jurassic World trilogy still racked up hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, the quality of the movies decreased with each sequel, culminating with Jurassic World Dominion, which garnered the lowest overall ratings of the franchise. While that movie acted as a reunion of the casts of both the Jurassic Park trilogy and the Jurassic World trilogy, no major stars from either trilogy are set to appear in Jurassic World Rebirth, including Chris Pratt's velociraptor-training former military man, Owen Grady.

Jurassic World Rebirth Is A Soft Reboot Of The Franchise

The Movie Picks Up A Completely New Plot With New Characters

While it will still continue following the timeline begun by its predecessors, Jurassic World Rebirth will essentially act as a reset button for the franchise. Set five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, the movie will follow Scarlett Johansson's Zora Bennett, a special operative tasked with getting paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Bailey) onto a forbidden island which housed the original park's research facility so that they can collect DNA from the three largest species from the land, air, and sea. Predictably, their mission goes sideways, and dinosaur-focused terror ensues.

Jurassic World Dominion acted as a sort of exclamation point for the first six movies of the Jurassic Park franchise, as it brought the characters from both trilogies together and ended where the franchise was always destined: with dinosaurs loose in the world. After what essentially amounted to a finale, it made sense to move the franchise forward with new characters and a time jump. As a result, Chris Pratt's fan-favorite character Owen Grady was axed from the new adventure, even if it would have been easy to write him in given his extensive experience with the dinosaurs.

What Chris Pratt Has Said About Returning To Jurassic World

The Star Left The Door Open For His Return To The Franchise

Chris Pratt has previously played coy about his return to the franchise, failing to provide a definitive answer in one direction or the other. In May 2024 Pratt told moviegoers they would "just have to tune in," to see if he would make an appearance in the fourth Jurassic World movie. However, all signs point to him having no role at all in the franchise's seventh film, although a brief cameo, name-drop, or appearance in a post-credits scene is forever a possibility for a franchise with the box office clout of Jurassic World.

Pratt could certainly follow the same pattern as the original trilogy's stars. Just as Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Golblum did, he could skip the first movie to let the new cast establish themselves as the franchise's stars, and then play a secondary role in future installments. Pratt's enthusiasm for the franchise is still intact by his own admission, so the door is very much open for his return.

Jurassic World Moving On From Chris Pratt Makes Sense

The Franchise Is In Desperate Need Of A New Direction

While Chris Pratt still has undeniable star power and box office pull, moving on from him was the right choice for the franchise based on how the Jurassic World trilogy ended. Jurassic World Dominion was almost universally maligned, as it currently holds a stunningly low 29% on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer based on the reviews of over 400 verified critics. With the franchise hitting that record low, it was clear that the nostalgia and lackluster new concepts had been played out, and the series was in need of a refresh.

Jurassic World Rebirth is poised to do just that, because in addition to introducing a star-studded and talented new cast, it is returning the franchise to its roots. It will follow a small group exploring a secluded island just as the first trilogy did, completely overwhelmed by the awesome might of the dinosaurs they encounter. It will also fold in a brand-new element: hybrid, mutated dinosaurs the likes of which the world has never seen. Regardless of how much star power Chris Pratt has, Jurassic World Rebirth moving in a new direction without him is probably for the best.