Jurassic World: Dominion Director Colin Trevorrow Reveals How the COVID-19 Delay Changed the Movie

After some pretty lengthy delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of highly-anticipated blockbusters are finally on track to debut on the big screen, including Jurassic World: Dominion. The threequel to the Jurassic World series — and the latest installment in the overall Jurassic franchise — has been the source of a lot of hype over the course of its production, even as it endured multiple shutdowns due to the pandemic. With a poster for Dominion officially released, and a special preview of the film soon set to screen before F9: The Fast Saga, that hype has only grown. In a recent interview with Empire, Dominion director Colin Trevorrow spoke about how the COVID-19 circumstances have impacted the film, particularly in its post-production.

"A couple of things, from a film-making standpoint," Trevorrow revealed. "Normally, because we're always cramped and trying to make the release date, especially in some of the territories where we're releasing earlier, we're finishing visual effects while we're mixing sound, and right after we do the score. This time, we actually got to do all of those things separately, and on their own time. Especially the sound mix — we will be completely done with visual effects when we're mixing sound. So, it's just a very humane way to make a movie. I wish I could do it this way all the time. It's definitely taken a bit of the intensity out of what that process normally is."

This echoes comments that Trevorrow previously made to ComicBook.com about the experience of shooting the film, as he argued that the delays that hit Dominion only helped it become an "emotionally rich and thematically rich" movie.

"It's unlike any experience I've ever had and probably ever will have," Trevorrow revealed to ComicBook.com earlier this year. "I lived with my cast for four months while we made this film and we all got to know each other very, very well. We were able to dig into the film and work on each of these characters in a way that I never would have had the opportunity to do. That kind of constant immersion is not really the way that films are made, where people are all living in their separate places and you see them on set."

"It's a very emotionally rich and thematically rich movie. It's got a lot on its mind -- because all of us did," Trevorrow continued. "And I think it understands each of these characters better than we ever have because each of these actors has been playing them for so long that they're the ultimate authority on their own character. Much in a way that I did on Safety Not Guaranteed, I really gave all the actors an opportunity to - in a lot of ways - do some writing, to really dig in and find the truth in each of these people. And the product of that is something that I never could have done alone. It's pretty special."

Jurassic World: Dominion will see the return of Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant, Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler, Jeff Goldblum as Ian Malcolm, Chris Pratt as Owen Grady, Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire Dearing, Jake Johnson as Lowery Cruthers, Omar Sy as Barry Sembène, Daniella Pineda as Zia Rodriguez, Justice Smith as Franklin Webb, Isabella Sermon as Maisie Lockwood, BD Wong as Dr. Henry Wu, and Campbell Scott as Dr. Lewis Dodgson. Dichen Lachman, Scott Haze, Mamoudou Athie, and DeWanda Wise have also been cast in currently-unknown roles.