Will Jurassic World: Rebirth Acknowledge a Fan-Favorite Franchise Spinoff?
Could Camp Cretaceous and Chaos Theory be folded into the new movie?
The Jurassic World franchise is showing no signs of slowing down, with a fourth film helmed by Gareth Edwards set to debut next summer. On Thursday, Universal announced that the film will be titled Jurassic World: Rebirth, while also revealing a few first-look photos and plot details. In particular, the plot synopsis confirmed that Rebirth will be set five years after the events of 2022's Jurassic World: Dominion, and will follow a brigade of characters as they try to extract DNA from some of the planet's biggest remaining dinosaurs. This detail not only surprised fans, but it raised a big question about the franchise's timeline. In particular, is there a chance that Rebirth could acknowledge the events of the franchise's animated spinoffs, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous and Jurassic World: Chaos Theory?
Camp Cretaceous, which aired on Netflix from 2020 through 2022, followed a group of teenagers who are accidentally stranded on Isla Nublar during the events of 2015's Jurassic World. Over the course of the series' five seasons, the "Camp Fam" become a found family and fight an array of dinosaur and human threats, before ultimately getting off of the island. Chaos Theory, which debuted its first season on Netflix earlier this year, jumps six years after the events of that series to follow the Camp Fam as young adults, as they reunite to investigate a potential murder of one of their own.
As showrunner Scott Kreamer revealed prior to Chaos Theory's debut, the initial plan was for the events of the series to be set five years after Dominion, before production delays changed that gap to six years. This then, theoretically, places the first season of Chaos Theory one year after the events of Rebirth. (It also adds an interesting wrinkle to Rebirth's notion that Earth is "largely inhospitable to dinosaurs" outside of "isolated equatorial environments", as Chaos Theory showed dinosaurs scattered across much of the United States a year later, but that's a separate conversation in and of itself.)
Since much of Chaos Theory's first season involves the Camp Fam reuniting from across their new lives, it's safe to assume we won't see that entire ensemble make the jump into live-action in Rebirth. But it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility to imagine some sort of acknowledgement of Camp Cretaceous and Chaos Theory in Rebirth — maybe a stray line mentioning the children who were rescued from Isla Nublar, or world-building details like the dinosaur dark web or dinosaur immersion therapy. Not only would it help bring the larger Jurassic franchise closer together, but it would provide a long-overdue shout-out to the saga's long-running spinoff.
Jurassic World: Rebirth is scheduled to open exclusively in theaters on July 2, 2025.
