Why Jurassic World 3 brought back a crucial villain from Jurassic Park
Director Colin Trevorrow tells us he wanted to combine a returning character with a “very current idea". **Contains minor spoilers**
It’s fair to say that Jurassic World Dominion is full of throwbacks to the original Jurassic Park movies, with stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum all returning and plenty of Easter eggs scattered around the film to tie the whole story together.
But in one crucial way, the film ties even closer to the original 1993 Jurassic Park than fans might initially realise. You see, the main villain of this film comes straight from the earlier movie – and arguably, it’s down to him that any of the deadly events of the franchise happened in the first place.
Warning – minor spoilers from Jurassic World Dominion follow after this point.
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We are of course talking about Lewis Dodgson, the CEO of genetics company BioSyn who is played by Campbell Scott in the Jurassic World threequel. In the new movie, he’s a vaguely Steve Jobs-esque figure who turns out to have his fingers in very menacing pies, and you’d be forgiven for thinking he’s a new character entirely.
However, he’s not – Dodgson actually first appeared in the original Jurassic Park, hiring Wayne Knight’s Nedry to steal genetic material from Jurassic Park. This leads Nedry to shut down security and electric fences, releasing various dinosaurs and causing the bloody prehistoric chaos we all know and love. He also plays a part in the original Michael Crichton book the film is based on, with more detail given about his company BioSyn.
Onscreen he was played by Cameron Thor in 1993, but he's been recast for this new film which makes it a bit more of a subtle connection – but the character’s significance is underlined by the presence of a modified shaving cream can in his office, the very same he gave Nedry to store the stolen DNA inside. Why he would keep that beyond 'showing it to audiences watching a film that he’s a character in' is a mystery, but it’s there if you didn’t pick up on who he was originally.
And when we caught up with director Colin Trevorrow, he says that bringing Dodgson back was a key part of his story plan for the new film.
“I always felt like Dodgson and BioSyn... which isn't mentioned in the first movie, it's only people who've read the book who even know that BioSyn exists. But, you know, for fans of Crichton, BioSyn as an entity felt like an important thing to define,” Trevorrow told RadioTimes.com. “And this movie gave us that opportunity.
“But we also didn't want to make [BioSyn] an evil corporation. Because I don't think that's a real thing. I think corporations are made up of people who work for somebody who is making decisions very high up.
“And so to make that guy, someone who feels like a betrayal to the values of all the young people working in the company, felt like something a lot of us are feeling now and we could connect to.
“It's a big thread. I mean, Mamoudou Athie's character is a young man who feels betrayed by this, this icon that everybody looks up to who turns out to be a pretty shady guy. And I think that's it's a very current idea.”
In other words, it was a way to connect a bit of fun nostalgia with a theme that Trevorrow was interested in – and a way to see what would have happened if BioSyn actually got its hands on the dinosaur juice way back in the 1990s (spoiler alert: it would have been bad anyway).
What (Jurassic) larks.
Jurassic World Dominion is in UK cinemas now. For more, check out our dedicated Movies page or our full TV Guide.
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