Gareth Edwards Sees JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH as a Metaphor for the Film Industry
Gareth Edwards is no stranger to creating thought-provoking sci-fi, whether he's building his own worlds in Monsters or The Creator or working within established universes like Godzilla and Rogue One.
For Edwards, science fiction is never just about spaceships, robots, or dinosaurs. Instead, it’s about what lies beneath the surface: the hidden metaphor, the deeper meaning that makes these stories truly resonate.
As he prepares for the release of Jurassic World Rebirth, Edwards revealed that the film’s underlying theme is something more profound than just prehistoric creatures running amok. To him, the dinosaurs are a stand-in for something bigger… the very nature of the film industry itself.
Edwards explained to io9:
“[Sci-fi] films are never really about spaceships, robots or dinosaurs. They feel pointless if they are. They [only] have meaning when the whole thing is kind of an analogy for something else.”
He then goes on to explain that Jurassic World Rebirth is about the decline of cinema, the challenge of keeping audiences engaged in an ever-evolving media landscape.
“The idea of people sort of slowly not going to the cinema, you know what I mean? They started trying different things to make them more entertaining, they mutated them, they created this stuff that people can’t watch or look at.
“And I kind of felt like this, in a weird way, I was getting a kick out of, it was some strange version of the situation we’re in as filmmakers, where, like, how do you get people excited about this stuff again?”
It’s a sentiment that’s all too familiar to those of us who have witnessed the shift in audience habits from the rise of streaming services to the explosion of content on platforms like YouTube, Tiktok, and Twitch.
The film industry has had to adapt to these new demands, and in some ways, so has the Jurassic Park franchise. When the original Jurassic Park hit theaters, audiences were awestruck by the groundbreaking special effects. But over time, those effects became standard fare, and what was once a dazzling spectacle was now expected in every blockbuster.
In Jurassic World Rebirth, Edwards picks up on that shift and brings it to the forefront.
“My first movie was a monster movie set in Central America. It was supposed to be like, at the end of King Kong, King Kong falls onto the middle of New York and dies… Imagine a movie where they’re now trying to tidy that up and clean it up. How do you move King Kong out of the way for traffic?”
For Edwards, it’s the idea of exploring the aftermath, dealing with the fallout of something big, something that’s already been seen. It’s a way to inject fresh perspective into an old idea, something that is becoming increasingly important in the current landscape of filmmaking.
So, Jurassic World Rebirth is a commentary on the current state of cinema and how even the largest blockbusters can begin to feel stagnant. The dinosaurs, once awe-inspiring and mysterious, are now just another part of the everyday, much like the formulaic nature of big-budget films today.
The industry has mutated, tried to keep up with audience demand, and yet, Edwards argues, that very mutation has led to a disconnect between what filmmakers are creating and what audiences are truly craving.
As Edwards sees it, this film is his way of exploring the “ending of another movie,” but in doing so, he’s tapping into the larger question of what happens when the magic fades and the spectacle becomes routine. It’s not just about the dinosaurs in the film, it’s about the entire industry, struggling to find its next big thing.
With Jurassic World Rebirth set to hit theaters on July 2nd.