Jurassic World Rebirth Prepares for a Fierce Fourth of July Launch

Universal Pictures has just released the final trailer for Jurassic World Rebirth. If you’re in the market for one last look before this summer blockbuster crushes its way into theaters over the Fourth of July holiday, you’re in luck. The trailer gives audiences a taste of what to expect from the summer blockbuster set to hit theaters on July 2, 2025. And from the looks of things, Rebirth will be all at once familiar and new. Starring Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali, the new movie returns to the original site of Jurassic Park and resurrects some of the same themes—this time with the addition of a globe-spanning scientific operation that’s got some intriguing shades of gray.

Jurassic World Rebirth is the fourth movie in the Jurassic World series and the seventh film overall in the Jurassic franchise that began with Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park in 1993. This time around, director Gareth Edwards (2014’s Godzilla) takes the wheel, while David Koepp is back on board to write the screenplay. Koepp also wrote the first Jurassic Park and its sequel, The Lost World (1997).

The official synopsis explains that five years after Jurassic World Dominion, the world’s environment has become steadily less and less hospitable to the dinosaurs. This has caused them to retreat into isolated equatorial regions that most closely resemble the warm, dinosaur-friendly climates that were their natural habitat millions of years ago. In the heart of one such tropical biosphere are the three largest known dinosaurs, on land, in the sea, and the air. And inside them lies a gene that a pharmaceutical company believes is the key to a miraculous drug that could save millions of lives.

Scarlett Johansson stars as Zora Bennett, a secretive military-style operative who’s leading a team on a black-ops mission to extract that gene. Unfortunately, their mission runs into a family of boaters whose vacation quickly turns into an unforgettable nightmare when a marine dinosaur attacks, shipwrecks the family, and leaves them stranded on a long-deserted island that turns out to have been home to a secret Jurassic Park research lab. And as the trailer implies, the scientists who used to work on that island might have been up to some pretty dark things indeed.

Top Talent, Familiar Monsters

If the all-star cast of Rebirth is any indication, this could be another summer blockbuster for the record books. In addition to Johansson and Ali, the film also stars Rupert Friend as Martin Krebs, a pharmaceutical company representative with some questions surrounding his motivations; Jonathan Bailey as Henry Loomis, an expert paleontologist; and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Reuben Delgado, the leader of the family whose boating trip is upended by the dinosaur attack. Luna Blaise, David Iacano, and Audrina Miranda play Reuben’s children, while Bechir Sylvain is a member of Zora’s mission team. Ed Skrein and Philippine Velge also star in currently undisclosed roles.

Much of the footage in this latest trailer is recycled from the first trailer, released in February. This is an opportunity for the studio to double down on key points and showcase the blockbuster’s special effects on a big screen. It opens with a scene in which a worker in a hazmat suit is trapped by a hungry T Rex in a laboratory. The sound of his screams pierces the tension until, with a satisfying crunch, it’s too late for him. This trailer promises the action-packed, heart-pounding set pieces and, of course, all the gnarly dinosaur attacks.

The trailer also promises to spotlight at least one major set piece—a heist of a pterosaur egg, likely a Quetzalcoatlus northropi egg, that one character casually describes as “basically a flying carnivore the size of an F-16.” We also get a look at the old favorite, the Raptors. And a new monster as well. Filmed in the island’s deep waters, there’s a moment that looks to show a mosasaur. In dialogue, the island is described as a place where the dinosaurs were “dumped” after cloning. “The worst of the worst,” one character proclaims. “The ones they couldn’t get under control.”

Jurassic World Rebirth is said to reset the franchise, and it will certainly draw from it the same kinds of themes. A return to the original Jurassic Park island research operation is as much about stoking nostalgia for longtime fans as it is about telling a new story. And it’s tough to think of an apex predator more dangerous than a hungry, disoriented mosasaur. One could make the case that the whole thing is rather predictable.

Except: Johansson. The Hollywood actress looks as if she’s going to bring some grittier tones to the usual survival-adventure narrative. While a band of ordinary people tries to navigate and survive all the island has to throw at them, Zora and her team are on their secret mission and look ready to take on the usual dinosaur threats in a more tactical way. Rebirth is an old monster in a new skin, and, for now, trailers are all we’ve got. But one thing’s for sure: We can’t wait for more.

Jurassic World Rebirth will open in theaters nationwide on July 2, 2025—just in time to make a dino-sized dent in the holiday weekend.