Back in January, we reported that The Impossible director J.A. Bayona had dropped off World War Z 2 with the likelihood of being wooed over to Universal to direct Jurassic World 2. Now it looks like that’s the case with producer Frank Marshall confirming the hire on Twitter:
Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow also sounded his support for Bayona on Twitter:
Personally, I’ve only seen Bayona’s 2007 film The Orphanage, which was quite good. His next movie, A Monster Calls, opens later this year, and judging by the trailer, it looks incredible to the point where hiring him to helm the sequel to one of the highest-grossing films of all-time seems like a no-brainer. While it’s unlikely that Jurassic World 2 will outperform the original at the box office (a fact that has to do with sequels rather than anything specific to the Jurassic franchise), this is still a huge get for Bayona, and while I was a bit disappointed with Jurassic World, I’m excited to see what he does with the material (Trevorrow and Derek Connolly are writing the script, which does give me some pause).
The untitled Jurassic World sequel will open on June 22, 2018 and star Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.
