Listen up, dinosaur fans! If you’re looking for something to wash away the disappointment of
last year’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (what is it with this franchise and lackluster
sequels?), you’ll rejoice at the news that Netflix has landed the DreamWorks-produced animated
series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous as part of its ongoing multi-year deal.
Monster Hit
Incredibly, the first Jurassic Park movie hit the big screens almost 30 years ago now, way back
in 1993. The Steven Spielberg-helmed adaptation of Michael Crichton’s intriguing novel,
starring Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, Richard Attenborough and Laura Dern, was an immediate
monster hit at the box office. Aside from the disappointing sequels and the current reboot (more
on that later), the film itself is also responsible for one of the most impactful legacies in modern
moviemaking. Aside from the films themselves, a plethora of video games, toys, official film
merchandise and even theme parks and rides have unleashed on the world, making Jurassic Park
an integral part of pop culture.
The 2015 reboot, Jurassic World, may have divided moviegoers and fans of the franchise
everywhere, but it still managed to rake in an incredible $524,909,010 at the opening box office
— making it the fifth-biggest film to open globally since 2002. This new trilogy spawns an array
of tie-ins, including video games and even a real-money online slots game based on the movie,
so there’s a hungry audience of dinosaur fans out there anticipating the release of Camp
Cretaceous.
Heading Back to Isla Nublar
As we’ve learned from the teaser trailer below, the series takes place in the Jurassic World
universe, back at Isla Nublar. It follows the adventures of a group of six teenagers “chosen for a
once-in-a-lifetime experience at a new adventure camp on the opposite side of Isla Nublar,”
according to the official synopsis. Of course, this being Isla Nublar, the resident dinosaurs on the
island don’t quite have a proven track record in staying put and enjoying island life, so we can
expect them to “wreak havoc across the island.” Who will survive, and what will remain of
them? Well, since it’s an animated series for kids, we can almost guarantee that all of them will
remain intact, but there are bound to be plenty of dinosaur-thrills and spills across the episodes.
Source: IGN
Speaking of dinosaurs: There are a few that we’d love to see brought to pixelated life in the
series. The long-term island resident T-Rex is bound to play a key role, for sure — after all, even
in the Fallen Kingdom, she’s still the OG. Since this takes place in the Jurassic World universe,
we’re also looking forward to seeing Blue and his fellow Velociraptors, giving the teens a run for
their money, especially if there are separate packs of wild and trained raptors on the island. And
let’s not forget the scariest of them all: the small but deadly Dilophosaurus!
Camp Cretaceous will stream on our small screens a year before the final part of the Jurassic
World trilogy hits the big screen in 2021. Netflix hasn’t announced a release date yet, but we
expect it to be sometime during the first half of 2020. Yes, it’s for a younger audience than the
movies, but that’s not going to stop us from devouring and hopefully, enjoying it! Given that the
series will be executive produced by Mr. Spielberg himself, Frank Marshall and Colin Trevorrow
as well as support from Scott Kreamer and Lane Lueras as showrunners, it’s certainly in safe
hands.
J.A. Bayona to Direct Lord of the Rings Series
In other news, Fallen Kingdom director Juan Antonio Bayona will be in the director’s chair for
another small-screen adaptation of a movie epic, according to a recent announcement. J.A.
Bayona has signed on to direct the opening episodes of Amazon Studio’s forthcoming (and
much-anticipated) Lord of the Rings project. Fallen Kingdom may have been a flop, but
Bayona’s previous directorial credits include the critically acclaimed Spanish chiller The
Orphanage and The Impossible, so here’s hoping he does a better job with this material. The
series itself won’t be a direct reboot of Peter Jackson’s feature films, as it will take place in and
feature events that preceded the adventures of Frodo and company in The Fellowship of the Ring.
