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Here’s How Jurassic World: Rebirth Was Supposed to End, Were Scarlett Johansson or Jonathan Bailey Meant to End Run?
Director Gareth Edwards shares how Jurassic World Rebirth almost ended with a shocking main character death before the studio stepped in to change the ending.
In Jurassic World: Rebirth, Mahershala Ali’s character, Duncan Kincaid, beats the odds and survives a terrifying encounter with the deadly Distortus rex. But fans may be surprised to learn that Duncan was not always meant to live through the film’s finale.
Director Gareth Edwards told USA Today that Duncan’s heroic moment was initially planned as his last. “My first gut feeling was to kill him, and that’s what I tried to do,” Edwards said. Even Ali agreed with that direction at first.
Studio pushed for a happy ending
According to screenwriter David Koepp, early drafts of the Jurassic World Rebirth script had Duncan dying much earlier. Edwards added, “The director’s cut had him dying, and I played it to the studio, and they said, ‘Is there any version where we could just see him living?’”
At first, Edwards was hesitant. But he created a new version where Duncan survives. He admitted, “Because it’s written and filmed for him to die, all the little tropes and subconscious things you would do to set that up are happening in the movie.”
This twist made Duncan’s survival a surprise for the audience. Edwards said he was moved when he watched the film with a crowd and heard them cheer as Duncan’s flare went up. He added that it was one of those times when the studio’s suggestion turned out to be right.
Here’s why the change made sense
David Koepp supported the change, too. He stated, “Duncan became a bigger part and a more interesting character, and we have a fantastic actor playing him, so killing him 90 seconds before the end of the movie would not have made a lot of sense.”
In the final Jurassic World Rebirth cut, Duncan draws the mutant Distortus rex away so that Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), and the Delgado family can escape. It appears he sacrifices himself, but he survives and signals his group with a flare before joining Zora and Henry on the boat.
No ‘rex machina’ ending this time
Unlike past Jurassic films, the Distortus rex does not get killed in Jurassic World Rebirth. Edwards said he considered bringing back the iconic T. rex for a final fight and wondered if that was something they should do.
However, the visual effects supervisor talked him out of it, reminding him that in all the previous movies, the T. rex always turns up to save the day and audiences expect that. Edwards referred to this typical twist as 'rex machina' and decided to leave it out, saying that skipping it was one way to make Rebirth different.
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