Development During early conversations about the 2015 film
Jurassic World, executive producer
Steven Spielberg told director
Colin Trevorrow that he was interested in having several more films made. Trevorrow said in 2014 that they wanted to create something "less arbitrary and episodic" that could possibly "arc into a series that would feel like a complete story". Trevorrow also said he would direct the sequel if asked, Trevorrow said in June 2015 that he was interested in seeing a
Jurassic Park film made by one of several unnamed Spanish horror film directors.
Jurassic World producer
Frank Marshall met with Trevorrow and
Universal Pictures later that month to discuss a sequel. Trevorrow suggested that the sequel would not involve a dinosaur theme park, as he felt future films could instead explore the idea of dinosaurs and humans co-existing. He said the film could involve dinosaurs going
open source, resulting in multiple entities around the world being able to create their own dinosaurs for various uses.
Pre-production Universal announced a sequel in July 2015, referred to as
Jurassic World 2, scheduled for a June 22, 2018 release date in the US. Pratt and Howard were paid $8 and $10 million for their involvement, respectively. Unlike its predecessors, Trevorrow said the sequel would not involve "a bunch of dinosaurs chasing people on an island", an idea that he found repetitive. He dropped out of that project three months later due to other commitments, and was hired as
Jurassic World 2 director in April 2016, with Belén Atienza and Patrick Crowley joining Marshall as producers. Spielberg, Marshall, and
Kathleen Kennedy had been impressed by Bayona's 2012 film,
The Impossible, and initially considered having him direct
Jurassic World, which he declined as he felt there was not enough time for production. After Bayona was hired, Trevorrow said of the film: "We're moving it into new territory. J. A. Bayona is an incredible director and I know he'll push the boundaries of what a 'Jurassic' movie is. I think it's important that we take risks. A franchise must evolve or perish". Bayona later confirmed the film would be the second chapter in a planned
Jurassic World trilogy. He and Trevorrow worked closely throughout production. The film, under the
working title of
Ancient Futures, was in full pre-production as of July 2016, with
storyboards being designed.
Andy Nicholson was hired as the film's
production designer. they began work on the script and devised the basic story. Trevorrow said the story was inspired by a quote from
Dr. Alan Grant in
the first film: "Dinosaurs and man, two species separated by 65 million years of evolution, have suddenly been thrown back into the mix together. How can we possibly have the slightest idea of what to expect?" He also said it was heavily influenced by the idea that "a mistake made a long time ago just can't be undone", Trevorrow compared the destruction of Isla Nublar to "the burning down of a church or a temple. I honestly think it's like killing off a character in a way, and if you're going to do that, as long as you approach it with the proper respect and acknowledgement that you understand how indelible and permanent what you're doing is, then hopefully people will have an emotional response but they won't hate you for it". Although the original ending was the same as the final film, Trevorrow had wanted to include more details about the integration of dinosaurs into the world. The script's structure, Trevorrow said, was inspired by Spielberg's 2015 film
Bridge of Spies, in which two seemingly unrelated stories "collide in the middle, and move on together". The film includes ideas previously featured in a rejected 2004 draft for
Jurassic Park IV (later
Jurassic World), presented in the same structure: a return to Isla Nublar followed by a second half set in a large
Gothic building on the mainland. The concept of weaponized dinosaurs came from Spielberg. Because of criticism of the death of
Zara in the previous film, Trevorrow said for
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom: "We made sure that every death was earned. Everybody deserves their death in this movie, a lesson learned. In 2018 everyone earns it. Horrible people". Trevorrow also said he was interested in "the larger impact" of genetic power, including its emotional impact and its potential human impact. Trevorrow was nervous about how audiences would react to the story's human cloning aspect, an idea supported by Spielberg, who was excited about the questions it could raise in the film's sequel. Trevorrow and Goldblum discussed dialogue ideas for Malcolm, and Trevorrow said he used a lot of dialogue from Crichton's
Jurassic Park novel for the character. Marshall said that Trevorrow wrote Malcolm as "the 'Uh oh, danger, I told you so' kind of character". Trevorrow said of Malcolm: "I saw him as kind of
Al Gore. He's got a beard now, and he's like, 'I told all of you this was going to be a disaster, and sure enough it is'". The character of
Lowery, a park control-room employee from the previous
Jurassic World film, was considered for a return in
Fallen Kingdom. Actor
Jake Johnson had met with Connolly to discuss his character's potential appearance in
Fallen Kingdom, In October 2016, Johnson said he and his character would not be in the film.
Bayona After Bayona was hired, he began reading Crichton's novels - including
Jurassic Park and
The Lost World - for inspiration. Bayona had his own ideas incorporated while essentially retaining the original story devised by Trevorrow and Connolly. Bayona said that with the first half of the film set on an island, "you have what you expect from a
Jurassic movie", while the second half "moves to a totally different environment that feels more suspenseful, darker, claustrophobic, and even has this kind of gothic element, which I love". The "gothic element" of suspense was influenced by
Alfred Hitchcock films. Bayona compared the film to
The Empire Strikes Back and
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which were both considered darker than their predecessors. Regarding the mansion sequence in which Maisie is chased by the
Indoraptor, Bayona compared the scenes to "the classic ending of a fairy tale, of a Gothic story, like finishing at the top of the castle with the princess in the tower and the dragon chasing the little girl". Trevorrow said the film's dinosaurs would be "a parable of the treatment animals receive today: the abuse, medical experimentation, pets, having wild animals in zoos like prisons, the use the military has made of them, animals as weapons". In Trevorrow and Connolly's draft, the dinosaurs would be sold rather than auctioned. Trevorrow said that with the auction, "the worst instincts of mankind are revealed. The first film was very clearly about corporate greed. This is just about human greed".
Casting In October 2016, casting was underway for the role of a nine-year-old girl. Approximately 2,500 girls were interviewed for the part, which ultimately went to Isabella Sermon, marking her film debut.
Toby Jones,
Rafe Spall, and
Justice Smith were cast at the end of the year.
Daniella Pineda,
Ted Levine and
James Cromwell were cast in early 2017, while
BD Wong confirmed his return as Dr. Henry Wu.
Geraldine Chaplin, who had appeared in each of Bayona's previous films, was also cast. To convince the studio that Pineda was right for the role of Zia, Bayona had her demonstrate she could perform comedy and drama scenes, as well as
improvise. Howard expressed interest in seeing characters from earlier
Jurassic Park films return for the fifth installment. In April 2017, Goldblum was confirmed to reprise his role from the first two films as Dr. Ian Malcolm. Bayona considered Malcolm a "great character!" Marshall said: "The world has changed a lot since Ian Malcolm went to Jurassic Park and we need his point of view now more than ever. He told us about chaos theory, he was right".
Filming Filming began on February 24, 2017, and the shoot included locations in England; most of the filming there took place at
Pinewood Studios. Because of its large
sound stages, the facility was considered perfect for the film's many interior scenes. A
post-credits scene is set at the
Paris Las Vegas resort, where loose
pteranodons from Lockwood's estate land atop the resort's Eiffel Tower. but ultimately no filming took place there.
Óscar Faura served as cinematographer. The film is the first entry in the
Jurassic Park series to be shot in
CinemaScope, a widescreen
2.40:1 aspect ratio, as Bayona wanted to present the film as "bigger" and "more epic". The crew used
Arri Alexa 65 cameras exclusively, making it the first film in the series to be shot
digitally. Spielberg was shown scenes from the film during production and offered Bayona his opinions. which the filmmakers considered too long. The two chose not to include the deleted scenes on the film's home video release, believing there was nothing that would be of interest to viewers. During filming, and in between
takes, Bayona used an
iPod to play different types of music on set to inspire the actors, as he had done with his previous films. He also played sound effects from other films in the series, including a
T. rex roar that he sometimes used to get a natural reaction from the actors. In particular, Bayona played unexpected sounds and loud music to scare Smith for certain scenes, as his character is portrayed as easily frightened. An unscripted moment left in the film involves Levine's character referring to Pineda's character Zia as a "
nasty woman", a comment that was previously made famous by Trump. In Hawaii, scenes where characters are running were filmed with the use of the Edge Arm, a
stabilized camera that was attached to a crane, which was mounted to a truck that drove alongside the actors. The film includes a scene on Isla Nublar where Claire and Franklin are riding in a ball-shaped Jurassic World Gyrosphere ride to evade dinosaurs. In Hawaii, the Edge Arm was used to film the actors riding in the Gyrosphere as it was hauled on a trailer to simulate its movement. Although this portion of the scene could have been shot with the use of a
green screen, Bayona wanted the actors to express genuine fear. Filming in the tank lasted five days, It was shot primarily by a
second unit crew, as Bayona was busy directing scenes on other sound stages.
United Kingdom Filming in the United Kingdom began at the Langley Business Centre in
Slough, England. Scenes shot at the business center included Claire's Dinosaur Protection Group office, old video diaries of Owen training his baby raptors, and Owen and Claire attempting to retrieve blood from the sedated
T. rex. house was used as the exterior of the Lockwood Estate. Scenes were also filmed on sets at Hampshire's
Hawley Common, where the exterior of Lockwood's mansion was built, as well as a mainland loading dock where the dinosaurs are brought. Nicholson
previsualized each of the sets he and his team built to ensure they would be large enough for the intended scenes. Scenes at Hampshire's
Blackbushe Airport, standing in as an American airfield, were shot in May 2017. Filming in the United Kingdom concluded on June 10. Up to that point, Trevorrow was present as an on-set writer for each day of production so he could aid Bayona with any possible script changes. Goldblum shot his scenes in a single day at Pinewood Studios, during the last day of filming in the United Kingdom. Jones also filmed his scenes on large sets at Pinewood Studios. and lasted more than 25 days, with locations that included
Dillingham Airfield and Pua'ena Point. On June 21, filming began at
Heʻeia Kea Small Boat Harbor, Filming also occurred in a nearby Heʻeia jungle for scenes where Owen searches for and locates Blue. Another filming location was Kualoa Ranch, which included the exterior set for a radio tower bunker. The Main Street section of the Jurassic World theme park was rebuilt on
Police Beach in Hawaii for a scene where Owen and Claire return to the island. where Pratt, Howard and Smith shot scenes on a beach.
Creatures on screen The film's dinosaurs were created using a combination of
animatronics and
computer-generated imagery (CGI). Scanlan worked closely with Bayona and Vickery to create the creatures. including an accurately sized
Velociraptor skeleton that appears in the background at the Lockwood Estate's library of dinosaur skeletons. After reading fan thoughts on dinosaurs and speaking with children, Bayona realized that dinosaur textures and colors were often brought up and said: "I thought that was the area where I could play with. They feel somehow a little bit more exotic and richer in this movie". Initially, the film was to feature two
Indoraptors, a white one and a black one, the latter of which would kill the former in what Bayona considered similar to
Cain and Abel. The white
Indoraptor was eventually removed from the script as the story was considered detailed enough without it. The film features more animatronic dinosaurs than any previous sequel, and the animatronics used were more technologically advanced than in the earlier films. Bayona said that animatronics "are very helpful on set, especially for the actors so they have something to perform against. There's an extra excitement if they can act in front of something real". Scanlan felt animatronics were not best for every scene: "In some ways it will have an impact on your shooting schedule; you have to take time to film with an animatronic. In the balance, we ask ourselves if it is economically and artistically more valuable to do it that way, or as a post-production effect". His team created functional animatronic models of the
T. rex, the
Indoraptor and Blue, while ILM worked on CGI versions of the creatures. It was used for a scene where the sedated creature is inside a cage while Owen and Claire attempt to retrieve blood from it. The beginning shots of the scene were created using only the animatronic, while the ending shots solely used CGI. The middle portion of the scene used a combination of the two methods. Trevorrow said: "We've been following this same character since the beginning; she's
the same T. rex that was in
Jurassic Park and in
Jurassic World. She is iconic—not just because she's a
T. rex, but because she's
this T. rex". • The
Indoraptor was primarily created through CGI, while a practical head, neck, shoulders, foot and arm were created for close-up shots. For some scenes, an inflatable
Indoraptor stand-in was operated by two puppeteers on set, to be later replaced by a CGI version of the creature. Scanlan's team also made puppeteering aids,
rod puppets, and several prop dinosaurs, all created by coordinating with Vickery to ensure a consistent result between the practical effects and CGI. A fight between Blue and the
Indoraptor, set in Maisie's bedroom, was designed in London and key framed by ILM. Animation supervisor Jance Rubinchik said the fight was the "trickiest sequence" because of the lack of previsualization. A list of creatures on screen are: Tyrannosaurus Rex, Velociraptor, Indominus Rex, Indoraptor, Mosasaurus, Carnotaurus, Baryonyx, Allosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Gallimimus, Stygimoloch, Sinoceratops, Triceratops, Pteranodon, Stegosaurus ==Music==