Jurassic World Rebirth is welcoming a new franchise star with Scarlett Johansson, who had been lobbying for the role for years. This wasn’t lost on the original film’s director, Steven Spielberg, who jokingly explained to the current film’s director, Gareth Edwards, that they’d better cast Johansson, or else.
Edwards explained the casting process in a recent interview with EW, where he talked about sitting in a room inside Universal headquarters with Spielberg and the casting executives.
Everyone began spitballing their dream casting pitches for the three main characters: Zora Bennett, a covert ops soldier; Duncan Kincaid, Zora’s longtime partner in crime; and Dr. Henry Loomis, the paleontologist along for the ride.
He said:
“It felt like at least one of them was going to be an A-lister. There were your obvious names floating around, and then at one point, Steven said, ‘Well, if we don’t give it to Scarlett, she’s going to kill me because she’s been pursuing a Jurassic film for ages.’ My eyes lit up.”
Gareth said he took the Alien approach to Rebirth, referencing that classic Hollywood story of how Ridley Scott didn’t write the character of Ripley specifically as a woman before casting Sigourney Weaver. Based on a script by original Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp, Edwards didn’t gender Zora at first.
“It’s hard to think of someone better than Scarlett. Now having worked with her, it’s really clear why she’s had the career she’s had, and she’s never been out of a limelight, as well as being an excellent actress.”
Johansson’s Zora Bennett is contracted to infiltrate a biosphere close to the equator packed with dinosaurs and extract DNA from the three biggest creatures of land, sea, and sky for a pharmaceutical company. She’s joined by Mahershala Ali as Duncan and Jonathan Bailey as Dr. Loomis, but, of course, the mission goes sideways when they are forced to rescue the Delgados, a family on vacation, from a dinosaur attack.
“Zora has had a long career in the military and in private security,” Johansson explains over email. “She is someone who has dedicated her life to service and to helping people. She has experienced a lot of loss, yet she maintains a lot of positivity and humor, even when things are hard.
“I wanted her to have a lot of sparkle. She is someone everyone wants to hang out with. She is a good-hearted person and a loyal friend. Of course, David gave her a lot of gusto in his amazing writing. I just added my part to bring her to life.”
Johansson also helped shape her character’s dynamic with Duncan and Henry. With an onscreen trio, when two are men and one is a woman, the pattern we often see is the romantic triangle. “She was super keen that that’s not what we do whatsoever,” Edwards says. “That kind of infected all the little decisions, and it just became a different kind of movie.”
I can’t wait to see this movie! I have loved every film in this franchise, and now my kids are pumped about it too. It’s going to be the best summer blockbuster to watch with family this year. Will you be headed to theaters over 4th of July weekend? Jurassic World Rebirth hits theaters on July 2.
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