Gareth Edwards is out as director of the Jurassic World: Rebirth sequel, exiting the Universal follow-up over “creative differences,” per THR.
The exit comes a little over a year after Rebirth hit theaters and finished its run as the lowest-grossing movie of the Jurassic World franchise, so a shakeup behind the scenes shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
What happened with Gareth Edwards and the Jurassic World sequel?
According to the trade, what the creative differences actually were remains unknown, as Universal is keeping the plot under wraps.
The studio moved fast on the sequel and already has a finished script from returning writer David Koepp, with Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and Jonathan Bailey all expected back as schedules get sorted out.
Universal offered a statement: “We had an incredible experience working with Gareth on Jurassic World Rebirth.”
Worth noting is THR points out this franchise has a history of chewing up filmmakers, as David Leitch was attached to direct Rebirth at one point before walking over the creative direction.
The trade adds that Steven Spielberg and producer Frank Marshall remain the constants who keep firm control over every one of these movies, with the formula locked in: dinosaurs loose in the modern world, equal parts awe and terror.
Translation: whoever signs on next is there to execute Spielberg and Marshall’s vision, not their own.
Where Edwards lands next is also unclear, though Deadline THR floats that the Rogue One and The Creator director could head back to something more of his own making.
Rebirth finished as the lowest-grossing Jurassic World movie
While Universal is happy to tout the $869 million worldwide gross, Jurassic World: Rebirth is the first movie of the Jurassic World era to miss $1 billion, and every entry has now grossed less than the one before it:
- Jurassic World (2015): $1.67 billion worldwide
- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018): $1.31 billion worldwide
- Jurassic World: Dominion (2022): $1 billion worldwide
- Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025): $869.1 million worldwide
The final Jurassic World: Rebirth box office numbers via Box Office Mojo:
- Domestic (39.1%): $339,640,400
- International (60.9%): $529,505,789
- Worldwide: $869,146,189
The $92 million domestic opening was also a franchise low, as Dominion opened to $145 million, Fallen Kingdom to $148 million, and the first Jurassic World to over $208 million — over $283 million in today’s dollars.
All of that on a budget reported to be a mammoth $225 million before marketing.
The B CinemaScore and rotten reviews didn’t help
The audience didn’t exactly love what they got, either, as Rebirth earned a “B” CinemaScore, the second-lowest grade in franchise history, ahead of only Jurassic Park III‘s “B-.”
Over on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie sits at a rotten 50% critics score from 404 reviews, with the audience Popcornmeter at 70%, lower than Dominion.
As I said in my review, the movie is just a bunch of dumb sh-t happening over and over, with the big D-Rex reveal completely misfiring and an ending that falls flat.
Universal knew it didn’t need to put out a good movie — the audience would show up regardless — and the numbers above show fewer and fewer of them are willing to keep doing that.
So now Universal has a finished Koepp script, three stars on hold, Spielberg and Marshall running the show, and no director for the follow-up to the franchise’s lowest-grossing entry.
Expect another name to get plugged in quickly, because the machine keeps moving, but the trend line on this franchise only points one way, and losing the guy whose direction was the one thing critics actually praised isn’t going to reverse it.
