Jurassic World: Dominion’s Colin Trevorrow Reveals How His Approach to the Trilogy Has Evolved

While Jurassic Park has been part of our pop culture world for years, that fictional world has hit a fever pitch over the better part of the past decade thanks to Jurassic World. Beginning with 2015’s Jurassic World film, the saga has now spun out into two sequels, a short film, and the Netflix animated series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous. The narrative of the franchise has definitely evolved in that stretch of time, both in canon and within the significance of our ever-changing world, something that is expected to culminate in a major way with the 2022 film Jurassic World: Dominion. While speaking to ComicBook.com about Camp Cretaceous‘ latest season, which arrived on Netflix over the weekend, Jurassic World and Dominion director Colin Trevorrow spoke about how his outlook on the franchise has endured, even as the avenues of storytelling have expanded.

“It seems like so long ago to me. It’s been decades, hasn’t it?” Trevorrow said with a laugh. “What’s changed for me is — from the beginning, I knew that the mission and the reason why I felt like there was a story worth telling, is that we could expand the story to a place where it was about humans having to coexist with dinosaurs on the planet, in the same way that we do with animals now. That doesn’t mean riding them to the grocery store, because we don’t do that either. It means there are animals in the wild and there are animals in zoos and we have some domesticated pets, and we have this very complicated relationship. And they’re [being] hunted as well.”

“To be able to take us from where we were when Jurassic World began, to where we want to go, it really took two movies to be able to justify that in a way that felt grounded in a reality that we all share,” Trevorrow continued. “Because I didn’t want it to turn into a fantasy series, and I still don’t. It’s just my own storytelling values when it comes to the franchise. I’m sure someday, someone who’s a kid now watching these movies will make the awesome ‘people riding dinosaurs with shotguns’ series, and that’ll be cool and I’ll watch it when I’m old. It’ll be awesome, too. But this one, I want to keep a little closer to the world we know.”

Along the way, Trevorrow’s take on the franchise has provided a gateway for a new generation of fans — including Camp Cretaceous, which showcases a more family-friendly outlook on the franchise.

“I’m moved by it, to be honest,” Trevorrow said of the franchise’s multi-generational appeal. “I always knew that a new dinosaur fan was born every minute, but as kids grow up and decide that they want to know more about dinosaurs, not only are these films and this show here for them, but they’re all going to have a different experience going into it. When I was sixteen, you just had Jurassic Park. Now, I feel like they’re going to be brought into it potentially even through this show. So it’s important that this show has all of those same elements that Jurassic Park has. It has thrills and it’s scary, but it’s emotional. It’s about relationships and it’s funny, and it has that sense of wonder that you mentioned. In a lot of ways, it is a bit of a primer. It’s certainly not quite as violent as movies, because we recognize it’s younger kids who are watching it, but people aren’t safe either.”

The first two seasons of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous are now available to stream on Netflix.