Jurassic World: Rebirth Borrowed a Trick From Alien To Cast Scarlett Johansson

Jurassic World: Rebirth director Gareth Edwards had an old Hollywood legend in mind while casting Scarlett Johansson in the lead role. The filmmaker had heard that Ridley Scott didn’t specify a gender for Ripley, the lead character in his movie Alien. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Edwards said he did the same with the character that became Zora Bennett, casting a wide net for the perfect actor. That, along with a few other guiding parameters, led him to cast Johansson, and he regards it as a great decision. He claimed that Johansson herself has been dying for a chance to get into the Jurassic franchise for quite some time.

The flexible genders of the characters in Alien have been well-documented, including in the 2003 behind-the-scenes documentary The Beast Within: The Making of Alien. According to that feature, screenwriter Dan O’Bannon intentionally left all the human characters underdeveloped, with a note on the scrip saying: “The crew is unisex and all parts are interchangeable for men or women.”

Edwards told EW that he had that old wisdom in mind while casting Rebirth. Armed with a script by Jurassic franchise legend David Koepp, he knew his three main characters were a covert ops veteran, their longtime partner in crime, and a paleontologist tagging along with them. “It felt like at least one of them was going to be an A-lister,” Edwards recalled.

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Edwards said that early in the casting process, he found himself in a Universal Pictures conference room with Steven Spielberg and several others contributing to the film. They were brainstorming some casting ideas, naming their top picks before logistical considerations would force them to narrow it down. “There were your obvious names floating around, and then at one point, Steven said, ‘Well, if we don’t give it to Scarlett, she’s going to kill me because she’s been pursuing a Jurassic film for ages,’” Edwards said. “My eyes lit up.”

Now that the movie is finished, Edwards said he admires Johansson more than ever. “It’s hard to think of someone better than Scarlett,” he said. “Now having worked with her, it’s really clear why she’s had the career she’s had, and she’s never been out of a limelight, as well as being an excellent actress.”

Jurassic World: Rebirth hits theaters on July 2nd. Previous entries in the franchise are currently split across the Starz streaming app and Prime Video.