Scarlett Johansson’s Jurassic World Sequel Just Hit a Major Snag

Universal Pictures is reshuffling its dinosaur plans after director Gareth Edwards walked away from the sequel to Jurassic World Rebirth, even as the 2025 film proved that audiences still want more from the 30-year-old franchise. Jurassic World Rebirth arrived in 2025, only three years after the end of the previous trilogy, and pulled the series away from the casts led by the late Sam Neill and Chris Pratt. The studio handed the lead role to longtime franchise fan Scarlett Johansson, who played covert operations expert Zora Bennett, with Jonathan Bailey as Dr. Henry Loomis and Mahershala Ali as Duncan Kincaid on a mission to harvest genetic material from living dinosaurs to fight human heart disease. The strategy worked at the box office. Jurassic World Rebirth, directed by Edwards and written by veteran franchise scribe David Koepp, grossed about 872 million dollars worldwide, according to box office tracking, making it one of the top earners of 2025 and the fourth-highest performer among the seven Jurassic Park and Jurassic World films. Reviews from critics and fans landed all over the map, yet moviegoers still showed up in force, with strong domestic and overseas numbers. For a ...