MAJOR SPOILERS for Jurassic World Rebirth. The latest installment of the Jurassic franchise is now playing in theaters, offering audiences another helping of dinosaur action amidst an all-star cast of expendable characters. Although none of the deaths are too surprising, the original ending of Jurassic World Rebirth did find one of the major characters meeting their end.
Near the end of the film, Duncan, the character played by Mahershala Ali, appears to sacrifice himself by distracting the Distortus rex with a flare. The creature chases him into the water, and the flare goes out. However, another flare is seen shooting into the sky later on, keeping the character alive for the inevitable sequel.
Director Gareth Edwards told Variety that Duncan was always meant to die, but once they pursued Ali for the role, he started to think they should keep the character alive. Ali disagreed, which would have settled it if the studio hadn’t stepped in and insisted on undoing the death.
“It flipped back and forth a couple of times,” Edwards said. “In the draft I first read, he died, and I thought, ‘That’s great!’ We started to pursue Mahershala, and for whatever reason, it felt like, well, if we’re going to get Mahershala, we’ve got to keep him alive, right? But then Mahershala read it, and his only main note was, ‘Can we kill him?’ I agreed, so I joined Team Mahershala and we both pushed to have him killed; the script changed back to him dying.“
Edwards continued, “Whilst we were shooting, the studio said, ‘Look, we haven’t got time to do a pickup shoot or any reshoots. Just to be safe, get some material, just in case we need him to live.’ In my mind, I know how this works; whatever we film will be in the movie, so you’ve got to be careful. I thought, ‘If we can do this, I want it to be the really classy version that I can live with,’ so I started trying to imagine it and to picture some shots. The actors gave this amazing performance for this little section, and I really liked it.“
“But, when we edited the movie and did the director’s cut, I ended up sending the version that had him dying,” he explained. “It went well, but the studio said, ‘Oh, it’s great. But can we just see the version where he lives?’ We hadn’t put it together, so we went back and edited that, and everyone just said, “It’s got to be that.” We did two test screenings, and the reaction to him living, everyone was a lot happier.“
You can check out a review of Jurassic World Rebirth from our own Chris Bumbray right here, and be sure to let us know what you thought of the film as well!
Do you think they should have kept the original ending of Jurassic World Rebirth where Duncan died?
