Last we saw Laura Dern’s Ellie Sattler on screen was in Jurassic Park III when she was home sweet home with her family working on a book. She was able to pitch in by calling for help from the mainland just when Alan Grant (Sam Neill) needed it most while running for his life on Isla Sorna, but in Jurassic World Dominion she’s back in action full force. In fact, her expertise as a paleobotanist is needed now more than ever.

Jurassic World Dominion takes place four years after the destruction of Isla Nublar. Dinosaurs now live side by side with mankind throughout the globe. While some do what they can to protect these creatures out of time as they try to find safe places to live in the modern world, others use them and the bioengineering technology that recreated them for nefarious purposes.

jurassic world dominion - 3
Image via Universal

With Dominion now playing in theaters nationwide, I got the chance to chat with Dern about the evolution of the franchise. 1993’s Jurassic Park is the quintessential example of a film that’s so good that it holds up exceptionally well even decades later. Yes, it has been nearly 30 years since the film’s release, but Dern was still able to pinpoint a key similarity between making the original Jurassic Park and the final film in the Jurassic World trilogy.

“The gift of genius animatronics starting with the amazing Stan Winston. To walk on set and see a creature, either the most beautiful creature you’ve ever seen in your life or the most horrific, disgusting and terrifying creature, that it all comes alive because of other’s mastery. And in both films with both sets of teams and puppeteers and painters that have just made masterful practical dinosaurs, it’s a dream come true, yet again.”

jurassic-park-laura-dern-sam-neill
Image via Universal Pictures

RELATED: 'Jurassic World Dominion' Director Colin Trevorrow Explains How Biosyn Got Back in the Dinosaur Game

Dern did have the foundation and experience to be able to hit the ground running making Jurassic World Dominion even with the wealth of new technology and the evolution of the filmmaking process in general, but there was one element of this production that nothing could have prepared her for — how the COVID pandemic would impact the filming schedule and life on set.

“On the first movie, we lived through a Level 5 hurricane together on the island of Kauai, and it brought us together in a very deep way as a family. But nothing, even that, could have prepared us for what it would mean having started the film and the pandemic occurring and being the first film back after we shut down. To witness 400 crew and cast assessing a way to support the film industry to come back to work safely and to witness the teamwork and the sacrifice and the attention to detail and protectiveness that occurred on this movie by this crew was unparalleled. And I didn’t know 28 years ago that I would move in with Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum and Bryce [Dallas Howard] and DeWanda [Wise] and Chris [Pratt] and everybody else, Isabella [Sermon], on this movie, BD [Wong], and we all lived together for months and that it would be amazing and that this movie would be the greatest team-family you could ever feel because of what we all know we walked through in these uncertain and radical times. So no one would have prepared me for that for sure.”

jurassic-world-dominion-trailer-cast-social-featured
Image via Universal

[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Jurassic World Dominion.]As for Ellie’s place in the Jurassic World Dominion narrative, there are quite a few highlights, namely how instrumental she is to dealing with the locust situation and how often Ellie steps up to put her life on the line to help those she cares about. But, there is also one particular Jurassic through-line for Ellie that’s had a curious evolution. In Jurassic Park, it was quite clear that Ellie and Alan shared a special connection, but in Jurassic Park III we came to learn that Ellie had started a family with Mark (Taylor Nichols). In Dominion, however, it’s revealed that they’ve separated, opening the door to finally cementing the Ellie and Alan relationship, and the film does it.

While many have been eager to see that relationship become official, Dern insisted that waiting was the best way to go about it. She explained:

“I love that in the first movie we had a feminist who is an equal to the men in an action film and at the beginning of a franchise who has a deep activist spirit. I only love that in her evolution she would have the opportunity to do everything she wants in this life, be completely fearless to use her voice in the world and now tell a man what she needs him to do to, first, help save everyone and what to sacrifice and that he should maybe join her for the ride. And then everything else has an opportunity to fall into place, but it’s not her focus or her priority and I just feel like it’s so badass and so appropriate for Dr. Sattler. As opposed to, ‘I’ve always been wondering,’ she’s like, ‘I got work to do.’”

Laura Dern and Sam Neill in Jurassic World Dominion
Image via Universal

Eager to hear more about the making of Jurassic World Dominion? We’ve got loads of cast interviews for you including an episode of Collider Ladies Night with scene-stealer DeWanda Wise below.