How Jurassic World Rebirth fits into the franchise timeline

It may have originally been planned as a trilogy but the Jurassic World franchise isn't extinct just yet. The fourth film in the series, Jurassic World Rebirth, is legging it our way faster than a rouge Gallimimus.

This latest sequel, fronted by Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali, will land in UK cinemas on 2 July.

It will be the seventh blockbuster in the franchise overall, and the first since 2022's Jurassic World: Dominion, with Rogue One's Gareth Edwards set to direct and original Jurassic Park scribe David Koepp on story duty.

The movie is expected to launch a new era of the franchise, with reports suggesting that it will focus on a whole new story that will reignite the film series and take it in a new direction. But will it fit into the Jurassic World timeline? Here's everything you need to know.

How will Jurassic World Rebirth fit into the franchise timeline?

According to reports, Jurassic World: Rebirth will be set five years after the events of Jurassic World: Dominion and find InGen's dinos on the verge of extinction after “the planet's ecology has proven largely inhospitable to dinosaurs."

"Those remaining exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling the one in which they once thrived," the movie's synopsis explains, with "the three most colossal creatures within that tropical biosphere hold the key to a drug that will bring miraculous life-saving benefits to humankind."

Variety has said the blockbuster will be "a completely fresh take launching a new Jurassic era, following three adults and three teens getting stuck on the island."

However, writer Koepp explained that his script will not "deny any events that occurred" in the three previous Jurassic World instalments. He told Slash Film: [The new film is set] in that world. But how might that world have changed in the last five years, and whose story is this now?"

However, sequel trilogy cast members Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard will not return, while fan favourites Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern will not reprise their roles from the Jurassic Park franchise.

Who is in the Jurassic World Rebirth cast?

Scarlett Johansson will lead the next Jurassic Park movie. The Marvel star will play Zora Bennett, a covert ops agent who has been hired to undertake a risky mission involving the world's last surviving dinos.

Moonlight star Mahershala Ali will play Zora's partner, Duncan Kincaid, with Wicked's Jonathan Bailey joining as palaeontologist Dr. Henry Loomis. Homeland's Rupert Friend will star as Martin Krebs, a representative to a drug company that's key to the film's plot, with Station Eleven's Philippine Velge, Deadpool's Ed Skrein and Bechir Sylvain bringing the rest of Zora's team to life.

It'll be up to Zora and her team to extract that key DNA MacGuffin but along the way they cross paths with a family whose boat was "capsized by marauding aquatic dinos." From there, the film takes us back on familiar territory as both groups get “stranded on an island where they come face-to-face with a sinister, shocking discovery that’s been hidden from the world for decades.”

The first trailer for the reboot, released in February, shows the characters returning to the original island from the first Jurassic Park movie.

Meanwhile, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo from The Lincoln Lawyer will play Ruben Delgado, the father of a family who has become stranded in a precarious spot, with David Iacono, Audrina Miranda and Luna Blaise playing his family.

The sequel will be helmed by Gareth Edwards, the same filmmaker behind 2023's visual epic The Creator and Star Wars spin-off Rogue One. Edwards' involvement was unveiled in February 2024, a short time after it was announced that the original director who was set to helm the film — Bullet Train filmmaker David Leitch — had dropped out.

Talking to ComicBook.com, Johansson said: "I am an enormous Jurassic Park fan... I cannot express how excited I am.

"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."

Anyone But You star Glen Powell turned down a role in the film. "Jurassic is one of my favourite movies. It's one of the things I've wanted to do my whole life," he told The Hollywood Reporter in May 2024. "I'm not doing that movie because I read the script and I immediately was like, my presence in this movie doesn't help it."

Where was Jurassic World Rebirth filmed?

Jurassic World Rebirth film was shot in Thailand in June 2024, before moving on to location in Malta from July to September, then finally wrapping up interior shooting at Sky Studios Elstree, just outside of London.

Jurassic World Rebirth will be released in cinemas on 2 July