Jurassic Park III. 21 years after the Joe Johnston film, the Jurassic franchise once again concludes a trilogy — this time with Jurassic World: Dominion. Colin Trevorrow returns to the director's chair in a movie that is expected to bring an end to the stories of Chris Pratt's Owen and Bryce Dallas Howard's Claire.
What started almost as a soft reboot of the franchise has evolved into a continuation of the original Jurassic Park films. After Jurassic World introduced brand new characters in a whole new setting, Jeff Goldblum's Ian Malcolm to share his first-hand experience on how dangerously far humanity can go. The character, however, was not that prominent in the film. Jurassic World: Dominion, on the other hand, is going to reunite Malcolm, Laura Dern's Ellie Sattler, and Sam Neill's Alan Grant in more essential roles.
Jurassic World: Dominion offers audiences a chance to find out what happened to Dr. Grant after the events of Jurassic Park III. Last seen flying off Isla Sorna, Sam Neill's character has been a no-show in the two most recent films. While there was no mention of Alan Grant in Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Sam Neill has a pretty good theory on his character's fate. During an interview with Neill also believes that Alan Grant currently lives a peaceful life in Ohio working as an ant.
Why Sam Neill's Explanation For Grant's Absence Makes Sense
Although Sam Neill's headcanon will not necessarily be proven right in Jurassic World: Dominion, the actor's explanation for Dr. Grant's absence in the last two films does work. Moving away from the dinosaur world would not have been too out of character for Alan Grant as he was absent from Jurassic Park: The Lost World and seemed tired of paleontology at the beginning of Jurassic Park III. That said, the character's love for dinosaurs despite all the danger that he has faced should not be overlooked.
What exactly happened to Dr. Grant between Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World: Dominion is a question that the latter will have to answer. While the film could take into some of Sam Neill's ideas, it is important that Jurassic World: Dominion has a more inspired and robust answer to offer. As the first trailer for Jurassic World still hid a lot of secrets, audiences will probably not receive any further explanations about Dr. Grant's lost years until the movie is released.
Why Jurassic World Didn't Bring Back Alan Grant Until Now
Alan Grant's return is a welcome direction for Jurassic World. Many fans of Jurassic Park were asking for Neil to make an appearance the moment the successor franchise was announced back in 2013. However, therein lies the reason that holding back Alan Grant's appearance until Jurassic World: Dominion was the best choice for the franchise: to ensure Jurassic World (2015) wasn't mistaken for Jurassic Park 4. It's no secret that of the original Jurassic Park trilogy, the first is the most revered. The second and third movies weren't terrible, but they aren't the reason Jurassic Park is such a widely-recognized IP. Steven Spielberg and the rest of the Jurassic World creative team probably wanted to make it clear to audiences that this was a new story in the same world, rather than a continuation.
Jurassic World was filled with nods to Isla Nubar's history with doomed living-dinosaur theme parks, so it hit the right nostalgic notes. Jumping straight in with Alan Grant would have been overkill and made it less apparent that Jurassic World was the start of something new. Not to mention that if Sam Neil had returned to Jurassic World, Alan Grant's presence may have overshadowed new Jurassic World characters like Owen and Claire, making it difficult to establish them with fresh audiences and returning Jurassic Park fans. Building up to the reunion of Alan with Ellie and Ian over the course of the trilogy allowed Jurassic World to service fans of the originals without compromising its own storytelling or character development.
Canonically, the timing makes sense too. As mentioned, Dr. Grant wasn't exactly enthusiastic about paleontology and dinosaurs when audiences last saw him in Jurassic Park III. It's completely plausible that he was in no rush to head back to Isla Nubar, despite the park in Jurassic World being public knowledge. After the violent events of Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III, Grant would be well within his rights to have washed his hands of dinosaurs entirely, settling into a less dangerous scientific field (just like paleontology used to be before overambitious billionaires decided to reanimate T-Rexes and Velociraptors). Whatever the in-universe reasons for his absence, it's a genuine thrill to see Alan Grant back once more in Jurassic World: Dominion.
