Original ‘Jurassic World’ Script Involved a Villainous Claire

The fourth film in the Jurassic Park franchise underwent many changes, even once the premise of “Jurassic World” became the prevailing concept. Bryce Dallas Howard‘s Claire represented the corporate interests of the park while Chris Pratt’s Owen represented the interests of the animals themselves. According to director Colin Trevorrow, the Claire character originally had a much more nefarious presence.

Trevorrow came on board the project after a script was submitted by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, which the filmmaker and writing partner Derek Connolly then went on to update with subsequent drafts.

“I only read Rick and Amanda’s script once, so I don’t remember all the details of it,” the director revealed to the Bryce Dallas Howard Network Magazine. “The lead character was a guy called Vance, who ultimately became Owen in our story. The film opened with Vance jumping out of a helicopter with a pack of raptors on a military raid of a drug dealer’s compound in Colombia. It was a different approach. But there was a character who had one or two scenes, the manager for the corporate side of the park. I think her name was Whitney. She was an antagonist to the hero, putting up red tape.”

After reading the script, Trevorrow noticed that, rather than being nothing more than a corporate representative, “Whitney” became an opportunity to offer audiences a compelling character arc.

“I remember reading that one scene and feeling like this character had the most room to grow out of anyone I’d read so far. She wasn’t awed by dinosaurs, she saw them as widgets in a business,” Trevorrow detailed. “To take a character who had lost her compass like that and bring her back to the wonder and respect for these creatures felt like a real journey. We thought her love of dinosaurs would likely have driven her to this job in the first place–she just had to find it again.”

The events of Jurassic World seemingly had a major impact on Claire, as Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom opened with Claire having started an organization whose aim was to rescue dinosaurs from the island that were in the way of an imminent volcanic eruption. As far as how the events of Fallen Kingdom have impacted Claire, we’ll have to wait until the third Jurassic World film to find out.

Jurassic World 3 is set to open on June 11, 2021.

Are you glad Trevorrow took Claire in a different direction from the original version of the character? Let us know in the comments below!

[H/T CinemaBlend]