What we know about the new 'Jurassic World' movie, after the last three sequels made over $1 billion each

• "Jurassic World Rebirth" hits theaters on July 2, 2025.

• The upcoming sequel has a new cast that includes Mahershala Ali and Scarlett Johansson.

• Here's what to know about the latest sequel of the billion-dollar franchise.

The $5.5 billion franchise "Jurassic World" is returning with a new sequel and cast.

When it was released in 1993, "Jurassic Park" became a pop culture classic, making $978 million, but its sequels weren't critical or commercial successes.

But over the last decade, Universal successfully revitalized the "Jurassic Park" franchise with a new trilogy, grossing over $1 billion with each "Jurassic World" film.

Since the release of "Jurassic World Dominion" in 2022, which featured actors from the first film alongside Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, fans have wondered whether the franchise will continue.

Pratt told the Today Show in May 2022 that "Dominion" felt like a finale to the franchise.

"This is the sixth Jurassic film, and it's the end of this franchise," Pratt said. "I really do think it's the end. You've got the legacy cast back, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, plus the cast of Jurassic World all converged, our storylines converging in a way that is very much a finale."

But Howard told People in August 2022 that she was excited to see the franchise continue, though she believed the next film would have a "largely different cast."

On Thursday, Universal announced that a new film called "Jurassic World Rebirth," would premiere in theaters on July 2, 2025.

Rob Mitchell, the director of theatrical insights at film industry research firm Gower Street Analytics, told Business Insider that "Jurassic World Rebirth" will likely make over $1 billion like its predecessors.

Mitchell said the franchise is popular enough to survive negative reviews, since "Dominion" still made over $1 billion with a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 29%.

Mitchell also highlighted the casting of Mahershala Ali and Scarlett Johannsson, whom he said was the biggest star the franchise has ever hired.

"I think the fact that it has these big star names, like Scarlet, and really well-respected names, like Mahershala Ali, will make people go, 'Well, there must be something interesting in this that they can get these guys to do this movie,'" Mitchell said.

Here's what we know about the sequel, including the new cast and the synopsis.

"Jurassic World Rebirth" is set five years after the last film.

After the events of "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" and "Dominion," cloned dinosaurs coexist with humans on Earth after they are released from an amusement park.

But according to the Universal Pictures' synopsis, in "Jurassic World Rebirth," — set five years after "Dominion" — dinosaurs live in isolated areas around the world because "the planet's ecology has proven largely inhospitable" to them.

A team of scientists and operation experts discovers that three of the largest dinosaurs hold the key to a drug that could help humankind and go on a trip to secure DNA samples from each creature.

But when the operation collides with a civilian boating expedition, they all find themselves stranded on an island with "a sinister, shocking discovery that's been hidden from the world for decades."

Mahershala Ali, Scarlett Johansson, and "Bridgerton" star Jonathan Bailey play the lead roles.

Oscar-winner and Marvel star Johansson plays the main character, Zora Bennett, a covert operations expert who leads the team trying to find the dinosaurs.

Oscar-winner Ali plays Zora's team leader, Duncan Kincaid, and Jonathan Bailey stars as a paleontologist, a scientist who studies fossils, called Dr. Henry Loomis.

Rupert Friend plays Martin Krebs, a Big Pharma representative. Philippine Velge, Bechir Sylvain, and Ed Skrein, whose character names have yet to be revealed, round out the team.

"The Lincoln Lawyer" star Manuel Garcia-Rulfo plays Reuben Delgado, the father of the family who collides with Zora's team. Luna Blaise, David Iascono, and Audrina Miranda play the rest of Reuben's family.

It's unclear if the original "Jurassic Park" actors will return for the sequel, but almost all major characters are still alive at the end of "Dominion," so they could still return.

"Jurassic Park" screenwriter David Koepp will pen the script, while Gareth Edwards, the director of 2014's "Godzilla," will direct the new sequel.

Read the original article on Business Insider