The Three Huge Stars Are Returning For Jurassic World 3

The only thing more exciting than dinosaurs in the 21st century is the news that three big-name stars are going to be in Jurassic World 3. 

Director Colin Trevorrow has announced that a trio of Jurassic Park favorites will appear in the upcoming threequel: Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, and Laura Dern will reprise their beloved roles in the flick, set to stomp into theaters in June 2021. 

Goldblum will step back into his role as the charismatic (and often enigmatic) chaos theorist Dr. Ian Malcom — also known as the guy who gave us the iconic line, "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." Neill is set to revive his Jurassic Park character, paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, in Jurassic World 3. And, of course, Dern will be back as paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler. 

Trevorrow dropped the news during a screening of Jurassic World, hosted by Collider, at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood, California on Tuesday, September 24.

According to Trevorrow himself, Goldblum, Neill, and Dern won't simply have cameos in Jurassic World 3 — they're locked for "sizable roles," which should satisfy fans who were disappointed by the lack of much Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

Confirmed to star in the newest Jurassic World installment are returning actors Bryce Dallas Howard (as dinosaur-rights activist and the Dinosaur Protection Group founder Claire Dearing), Chris Pratt (as ethologist and former Jurassic World velociraptor trainer Owen Grady), and Isabella Sermon (as Maisie Lockwood, the granddaughter of Jurassic Park founder John Hammond's partner Sir Benjamin Lockwood). 

Goldblum's Dr. Ian Malcolm was already a part of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom — appearing during a U.S. Senate hearing regarding whether the dinosaurs on Jurassic World's Isla Nublar should be saved (he argued that they should die in the volcanic eruption as a way to correct Hammond's immoral cloning) — so it's not difficult to speculate on how Neill's Dr. Alan Grant and Dern's Dr. Ellie Sattler will fold into the Jurassic World 3 mix. It's even easier to see how the three characters would fit in perfectly when considering how Jurassic World: The Fallen Kingdom ended: with Dr. Malcolm declaring that the world has entered the start of the Neo-Jurassic Age, in which freed dinosaurs roam the earth and humans must learn to coexist with the creatures. 

It doesn't take a genius (or a chaos theorist, paleontologist, or paleobotanist) to know that it'll take a lot more than wishful thinking and best behavior on mankind's part to keep the peace with dinosaurs. As teased in the recent short film Battle at Big Rock, which Trevorrow directed and which was released on FX on September 15, things aren't as peachy-keen as everyone had hoped. Dinosaurs are wreaking havoc, clashing with one another and causing major fallout, so it stands to reason that Claire, Owen, and Maisie might call on Dr. Malcom, Dr. Grant, and Dr. Sattler to help establish new rules of life in the Neo-Jurassic Age — or potentially come up with a solution to eradicate the cloned creatures for good. 

For now, the plot of Jurassic World 3 remains a mystery, but all that uncertainty is more than overshadowed by the knowledge that Goldblum, Neill, and Dern are back in the franchise saddle in a big way.

Jurassic World 3 will open in theaters on June 11, 2021.