The dinosaurs are getting a familiar shepherd. Universal Pictures has zeroed in on J.A. Bayona to direct the next Jurassic World film, the follow-up to 2025’s Jurassic World Rebirth, according to The Hollywood Reporter’s Borys Kit, who confirmed the news on October 2. It would be a homecoming eight years in the making.
Bayona directed 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the gothic-tinged entry that took the dinosaurs out of the park and into a haunted mansion auction. The film divided critics and delighted audiences on its way to more than $1.3 billion worldwide. Now, with Gareth Edwards having exited the Rebirth sequel over creative differences, Universal wants a director who already knows where the raptors are buried.
A franchise that refuses to go extinct
Let’s appreciate the run this franchise is on. Jurassic World Rebirth pulled in $869 million globally last year, powered by Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and Jonathan Bailey. That is a number most franchises would kill for in their seventh film, and it is why Universal is moving at pace on the next one rather than letting the grass grow.
David Koepp, who wrote the original Jurassic Park back in 1993 and returned for Rebirth, has already finished the script for the sequel. When the writer of the most beloved dinosaur movie ever made hands you a finished screenplay, you do not sit on it. Johansson, Ali, and Bailey are all expected to return, schedules permitting, which means the new era’s core trio stays intact.
Steven Spielberg and producer Frank Marshall remain involved as well. That continuity matters. Whatever directors come and go, the franchise has always been steered by its original architects, and that steady hand is a big reason the series has survived five different filmmaking teams across seven movies.
Why Bayona fits
Bayona is not yet in formal talks, per THR, but he is at the top of Universal’s list, and it is easy to see why. Before Fallen Kingdom, he directed The Impossible, the 2012 survival drama that earned Naomi Watts an Oscar nomination and announced him as a filmmaker of uncommon emotional force. After Jurassic, he directed the first two episodes of Amazon’s The Rings of Power and then made Society of the Snow for Netflix, the harrowing true story of the 1972 Andes flight disaster that became one of the streamer’s most acclaimed films.
That is a director who can do spectacle and soul in the same frame. Fallen Kingdom’s best stretches, the volcano evacuation and the shadowy mansion climax, showed a filmmaker who treats dinosaurs as animals with weight and menace, not just pixels. Society of the Snow proved he can wring genuine human drama out of impossible situations. A Jurassic film needs both, and Bayona has both on his resume.
The InSneider’s Jeff Sneider first floated the news, noting Universal had previously considered Twisters director Lee Isaac Chung before turning to Bayona. TheWrap separately confirmed Bayona as the frontrunner. When the trades line up like that, the deal is usually a matter of when, not if.
The Edwards exit, in context
Gareth Edwards leaving over creative differences two months ago could have been a crisis. Instead, Universal turned it into an opportunity. The franchise has always thrived on fresh eyes: Spielberg to Joe Johnston to Colin Trevorrow to Bayona to Edwards. Each brought a different flavor, and the series is stronger for the variety.
There is a lesson in how quickly the studio moved. A finished Koepp script, a willing cast, and a shortlist topped by a proven franchise veteran. That is a studio that learned from the stop-start development cycles that have slowed other mega-franchises. It is the confident, no-drama way to run a billion-dollar series.
What we want from the next chapter
Rebirth worked because it went back to basics: a small team, a dangerous island, dinosaurs that felt dangerous again. The sequel should keep that discipline. Bayona’s horror instincts, honed on The Orphanage and Fallen Kingdom’s mansion sequence, are perfect for making the creatures scary in a way the franchise sometimes forgets.
The returning cast gives him a head start. Johansson brought movie-star authority to Rebirth, Ali brought gravity, and Bailey brought charm. A director who knows how to direct actors, not just effects, will get more out of all three. Bayona is exactly that kind of director.
The verdict
This is Universal making the smart, steady choice. A finished script from the franchise’s founding writer, a cast audiences already love, and a director with a $1.3 billion Jurassic hit and an Oscar-nominated drama on his resume. The dinosaurs are in good hands. We cannot wait to see what Bayona does with them this time.
It is also a reminder of how strong the studio’s franchise bench is right now. Between this and the Miami Vice revival revving up for 2028, Universal is playing the long game beautifully. And for pure blockbuster spectacle, our look at Takashi Yamazaki’s Grandgear shows the giant-monster crown is still very much up for grabs.
