Gareth Edwards won’t be going back to the island.
The director, who steered last year’s “Jurassic World Rebirth” to an $869 million global haul, has exited the franchise’s next installment over what Universal is calling, simply, “creative differences.” The Hollywood Reporter broke the news Thursday, and Variety confirmed it independently shortly after.
Nobody involved is saying much more than that. In a statement, a Universal spokesperson praised the collaboration with Gareth on Jurassic World Rebirth, echoing remarks that have appeared in nearly identical form across multiple reports covering the split. What actually caused the break remains unstated. THR notes that specifics on the “creative differences” simply aren’t known, and that the Jurassic franchise has historically shuffled directors between installments anyway.
This isn’t new territory for Edwards. He left “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” in 2016 after directing the 2014 reboot, a split Deadline described at the time as amicable. Between franchise gigs, he’s tended to return to original material — most recently “The Creator” in 2023 — and that pattern looks set to repeat. According to World of Reel, Edwards is turning his attention to other, non-franchise projects rather than sticking around Hollywood’s biggest dinosaur property.
The sequel itself isn’t slowing down. David Koepp, who wrote “Rebirth,” has already delivered a script, and Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey are all expected to return, though Empire notes their scheduling still needs to be worked out. Universal has begun the search for a new filmmaker to lead the next Jurassic installment. The successful candidate would become the sixth director to oversee the franchise since it launched with Steven Spielberg’s 1993 classic, following Joe Johnston, Colin Trevorrow, J.A. Bayona, and Gareth Edwards.
Production on the follow-up is tentatively targeted for 2027, according to TheWrap, which leaves Universal a tight window to find its next dinosaur handler before cameras are supposed to roll.
