Jurassic World Dominion director Colin Trevorrow has revealed why the movie’s prologue, which was released online prior to the film’s release, didn’t make it into the final cut.
“[The Prologue was] maybe too [Terrence] Malick-ian for a big summer movie,” Trevorrow told The Wrap (opens in new tab). “It was the beginning of the movie, it’s the first five minutes of the film and something I’m very proud of. In our negotiations for how long this movie could be, and it’s still a pretty long movie, we realized that it was going to have to go.”
The prologue takes us back to the prehistoric age, the first time in the franchise that we’ve seen dinosaurs in their own time period, before jumping forward to the chaos that followed Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The second movie in the series saw a volcano eruption destroy Isla Nublar, the location of the titular theme park, and dinos are now wreaking havoc in the real world.
Trevorrow added: “Universal supported my request to just give it to everyone for free and let people watch this prologue as a way to bring them into the world that we were creating. Hopefully, and I could almost say assuredly, someday you will be able to see it again.”
The movie’s runtime already clocks in at nearly two and a half hours, making it the longest in the trilogy. As well as wrapping up the Jurassic World series, it also throws the plot back to the original Jurassic Park movies, with Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and Jeff Goldblum’s characters joining forces with Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire Dearing.
Jurassic World Dominion is in theaters now. If you’ve already seen the dinosaur threequel, check out our interview with Jeff Goldblum, Mamoudou Athie, and Colin Trevorrow, as well as our guides to the Jurassic World Dominion ending explained and the Jurassic World Dominion dinosaurs.