The fifth “Jurassic World” movie—and the eighth film in the franchise—appears to be moving quickly through development. We now, apparently, have a title: “Jurassic World Liberation.” This follows multiple ‘Liberation’ domain names having been acquired a few days ago.
The sequel, currently rumored for release on June 9, 2028, with director Gareth Edwards signed on to return, doesn’t have a production start date yet. With Scarlett Johansson’s busy 2026 schedule—which includes back-to-back shoots for “The Exorcist: Martyrs” and “The Batman: Part II” —filming for this one might not begin until early 2027.
Last year’s “Jurassic World Rebirth” hauled in a staggering $870 million at the worldwide box office, and Universal clearly isn’t ready to let this dinosaur cash cow go extinct just yet.
The follow-up would once again center on Johansson’s covert ops expert, Zoe Bennett. Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali are also expected to return for the sequel. There’s no word yet on who wrote the script, though it could very well be ‘Rebirth’ scribe David Koepp.
Last year, Edwards (“The Creator” and “Rogue One”) took over directing duties after original “Rebirth” helmer David Leitch dropped out of the project due to “creative differences.” At the time, I thought Edwards would be a great replacement. Given his background in both sci-fi and monster movies, he seemed a genuinely good match for the ‘Jurassic World’ franchise. Sadly, after watching ‘Rebirth,’ I came away disappointed.
Koepp’s clumsy script was partly to blame: flat writing and a tired plot that felt stitched together from leftover scraps of past sequels. Edwards’ visuals didn’t help, either, leaning far too hard into excess.
All of this left me thinking: it’s been 32 years since “Jurassic Park” came out, and frankly, it’s still the only truly worthy film in the series. Yes, “The Lost World” wasn’t well received at the time, but compared to the nonsense we’ve been getting since, its stock has quietly risen. At least Spielberg was still behind the camera, and there were some interesting ideas—even if the execution was messy. It was also the darkest chapter of the franchise.
Every sequel since has chased the original’s magic without understanding what made it work: wonder, tension, and restraint. Instead, we keep getting bigger dinosaurs, louder set pieces, and thinner characters. It’s been a creatively bankrupt series for decades.