Jurassic World 4, or Jurassic Park 7, is indeed arriving in 2025 – and Deadpool 2’s David Leitch is about to sign up to direct it.
It looks as though Universal Pictures is keen to press ahead with its Jurassic World franchise, given that reports are emerging that the studio wants a new film in the series in cinemas by next year.
It emerged late last month that Universal was keen to fast-track the film and had acquired the services of David Koepp – the writer behind the original Jurassic Park and its 1997 sequel, Jurassic Park: The Lost World – to get a screenplay into shape.
Given that we’re now hearing that Universal are looking to secure the services of David Leitch (Dead Pool 2, Bullet Train) to direct the film, that seems to confirm those stories. Plus, according to The Hollywood Reporter, that summer 2025 date is indeed the target.
This film is set to be a sequel to 2022’s Jurassic World: Dominion, the last entry in the franchise. That film didn’t fare too well critically but it did nudge past the billion dollar mark at the box office, proving there’s still life left yet in the 30 year-old franchise.
Leitch is about to be handed the keys to the dinosaur enclosure then, and it also looks as though he’ll have a clean slate of sorts to make his mark on the series. While the film will almost certainly follow on in some way from the events of Jurassic World: Dominion, none of the characters from that series, or the legacy characters from the earlier Jurassic Park series, are expected to return.
David Leitch’s next film is The Fall Guy, set to release in May. It marks the latest entry from a director who has cemented his status as one of Hollywood’s top action directors.
There’s an argument to be made that Leitch’s work tends to be more impactful when he leans into his experience as a celebrated stunt director: films such as Bullet Train and Atomic Blonde which feature practical action sequences are celebrated more than his films that are chock full of visual effects such as Fast & Furious: Hobbs and Shaw. How practical the director can be with a dinosaur story in 2024 is a good question, and we’re looking forward to seeing how Leitch tackles the production.
In terms of commercial impact, how The Fall Guy lands in May remains to be seen, too, but there’s no arguing that Leitch’s big franchise films tend to perform well commercially. Even though it was only a spin-off film, Fast & Furious: Hobbs And Shaw earned more at the box office than its mainline counterpart in the series, Fast X, although it should be noted that a global pandemic did land in between those two films and change the Hollywood calculus somewhat.
We’ll bring you more news on the next Jurassic World film as we hear it, and given that Universal has plans to get it in front of our eyeballs by next summer, we probably won’t be waiting too long.
