Following an announcement earlier this year, Universal and Amblin Entertainment’s Jurassic World 4 is building steam, having cast three new leads.
Having grossed an impressive six billion dollars at the worldwide box office, the Jurassic Park franchise tends to position itself with big stars and bigger dinosaurs. With the last trilogy starring industry juggernaut Chris Pratt as well as blockbuster darling Bryce Dallas Howard.
Casting Dino Wranglers
The next instalment in the Jurassic World saga has big shoes to fill, and with the hiring of director Gareth Edwards, known for Godzilla and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and the casting of Scarlett Johansson, they’re certainly heading in the right direction. At one point, Dev Patel was also in talks — furthering the huge status of the film. That as it may be, there have been no further comments on Patel, perhaps indicating that the actor may have passed on the role.
Since then actor Jonathan Bailey (Wicked) joined the film on April 15th, filling in another one of the six lead roles. Fulfilling the third adult lead role is Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (The Lincoln Lawyer) who was announced as part of the cast on May 10th. A fourth lead was cast when Rupert Friend, best known for his roles in Wes Anderson’s filmography and the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi, joined the film.
As previously reported by insider Daniel Richtman (DanielRPK) there are six leads in the film and a villain. There are several ways that the aforementioned four leads (who are all adults) may fit into the film, assuming Richtman’s scoop comes to fruition.
Friend (or any of the other leads) could be the villain, with Friend himself having played the live-action version of the villainous Grand Inquisitor in the Star Wars franchise. Alternatively, Jonathan Bailey, who is probably the youngest looking on the cast, could be playing the boyfriend role.
Hollywood’s Leading Man Weighs In
Also in the aforementioned report, DanielRPK reported that Glen Powell (Anyone But You, Twisters) had turned down an offer to star in the film. This was confirmed in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter’s Lacey Rose where Powell commented on the quality of the script and his mindset as an actor when looking for projects.
“Jurassic is one of my favorite movies. It’s one of the things I’ve wanted to do my whole life. I’m not doing that movie because I read the script and I immediately was like, my presence in this movie doesn’t help it, and the script’s great. The movie’s going to fucking kill. It’s not about that. It’s about choosing where you’re going to make an audience happy and where you’re going to make yourself happy.”
Universal’s Jurassic World 4 currently stars Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Rupert Friend. It is scheduled to begin filming later this year in order to make its July 2025 release date. The film will debut in the Summer with other blockbuster juggernauts such as Superman and Fantastic Four.
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