‘Jurassic World Rebirth’s Original Ending Would Have Killed Off a Major Character

Jurassic World Rebirth is now playing in theaters, and Gareth Edwards’ installment in the massive franchise takes the series in a slightly new direction, ditching the planet-changing events of Jurassic World Dominion to tell a smaller-scale story involving a team of mercenaries and a stranded family on an island that is home to an abandoned research facility. Among the usual dinosaurs that fans have come to expect in these films is a new assortment of mutated hybrids that cause plenty of problems for our cast of characters. The main threat is the monstrous Distortus-Rex, which nearly kills one of the main characters towards the end of the film. As it turns out, that was Edwards’ original intention all along.

While speaking with USA Today about the film, Edwards discussed the ending of Jurassic World Rebirth, particularly the scene in which Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) lures the D-Rex away from Zora (Scarlett Johansson), Henry (Jonathan Bailey), and the Delgado family. Audiences are led to believe that Duncan is dead in a tragically edited final sacrifice scene, only for it to be revealed that Duncan made it out when he lights another flare, with the team picking him up on their boat before the movie ends. Edwards would tell the magazine that “My first gut feeling was to kill him, and that’s what I tried to do.” Edwards had shot the scene so that Duncan would not make it out.

The filmmaker would go on to say, “The director’s cut had him dying, and I played it to the studio, and they said, ‘Is there any version where we could just see him living?'” Studio notes have long been blamed for the outcome of high-profile disasters, such as Joss Whedon’s version of Justice League. Thankfully, that wouldn’t be the case for Rebirth, as Edwards would relent and change Duncan’s fate, which would actually work in the movie’s favor.

‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ Almost Featured Some Intense Dinosaur Fights

As with most great discoveries for a good scene in a movie, Edwards would find in the editing process that Duncan’s survival would help to subvert expectations, explaining that “Because it’s written and filmed for him to die, all the little tropes and subconscious things you would do to (set that up) are happening in the movie, So then, weirdly, I think it’s a surprise when he lives, because we’ve played all the cards you play when someone’s about to have their last moment.” The fact that Edwards didn’t change anything around the setup would prove to make Duncan’s survival effective for audiences.

The director relented, hilariously admitting that “It was one of those occasions where sometimes the studio knows what they’re on about.” It’s very rare that we hear about a filmmaker who actually appreciated a studio note, making Jurassic World Rebirth that much more of an interesting production. The interview with USA Today would also reveal that there was a version of the ending where the T-Rex would kill the D-Rex, until Edwards was convinced by his visual effects supervisor that the fact he didn’t go that route (like most other Jurassic films have) is what makes Rebirth special.

While it would have been fun to see Dinosaurs fight, it’s commendable that Edwards and the production team were well aware of the tired tropes that have dominated the franchise and seemed to avoid them in the service of a better story. Jurassic World Rebirth might not have been as well-received critically as some might have hoped, but it still feels like a step in the right direction for a franchise that has lost its way. Hopefully, Edwards can return to this world in a future installment.

Source: USA Today