Jurassic World: Rebirth is out in the theatres and the latest cast addition to its dinosaur lineup has led many intrigued fans questioning where the inspiration came from. It seems that some eagle-eyed fans hit the target right in terms of theories as director Gareth Edwards has confirmed the origins of one of the movie’s scariest and latest additions to the silver screen.
The inspiration
In a conversation with Screen Rant, Edwards revealed that the Distortus rex was inspired in design by the Xenomorph from Alien and Rancor from Star Wars. The D-Rex is meant to be a mutant/ hybrid dinosaur that is partly inspired by the original anti-villain of the original Jurassic Park films: the T-Rex.
“I was like, 'Okay, go rewatch David Lynch's The Elephant Man.' It was this idea of someone who didn't choose for this to happen to them. You might be afraid of them and want them gone, but you start to feel a bit of empathy. They've got breathing difficulties and they can't quite walk properly and things like this. And I like that being torn between it's a monster and I want to get rid of it, but I feel a bit sorry for it as well,” revealed Edwards, on being asked how he envisioned the D-Rex’s character and animation.
Jurassic Park Wiki, a fan page for the franchise, described a hybrid dinosaur as “genetically engineered dinosaurs that are made of more than one dinosaurs mixed together which did not exist in the paleontological record”.
{{/usCountry}}Jurassic Park Wiki, a fan page for the franchise, described a hybrid dinosaur as “genetically engineered dinosaurs that are made of more than one dinosaurs mixed together which did not exist in the paleontological record”.
{{/usCountry}}“In the mainline canon, most of these hybrids were made by Henry Wu such as the Indominus rex, the Indoraptor, and Scorpios rex. Hybrid dinosaurs appear across a variety of Jurassic Park media such as the toyline Jurassic Park: Chaos Effect and the movies Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” it further adds.
If the film were to get a sequel, the use of mutated dinosaurs in the plotline could bear interesting consequences for where the franchise as a whole is taken in the future. Taking inspiration from previous non-dinosaur cinematic aliens is a relatively new trend started by Edwards but was previously used in creating Jurassic World: Dominion’s Giganotosaurus as well.
The discourse
The use of mutant dinosaurs has also prompted an online dialogue among dedicated fans about what this could mean for the future of the franchise.
“Just found out that Jurassic World Rebirth will have a mutant dinosaur that’s just created for the film. I really thought we were done with this “dinosaur antagonists just created for the film” crap after Fallen Kingdom,” one fan wrote.
Others, however, seemed excited at the possibility of introducing new and engaging varieties of dinosaurs to the plot.
Jurassic World: Rebirth is the seventh movie in the franchise but the first based on a new model and cast. The film was released in theatres in the US on July 2.
– By Stuti Gupta