UPDATE: Director Colin Trevorrow revealed on Twitter that the dinosaur in question is the Therizinsaurus.
A new image from Universal Pictures' Jurassic World: Dominion suggests a familiar, scaly, sharp-toothed face could return for the thrilling dinosaur threequel.
The image from Total Film magazine features Bryce Dallas Howard's Claire Dearing up to her chin in swampy water, with a massive dinosaur standing behind her. While most of the dino's body is cropped out of the photo, the very long claws on the hands and the dewclaws on the feet are evocative of the Indominus rex, the hybrid dinosaur created by Dr. Henry Wu and InGen that died in the first Jurassic World.
While the imagery speaks for itself, it's worth noting director Colin Trevorrow previously said Jurassic World: Dominion won't include any hybrid dinosaurs like past installments (Indominus rex in Jurassic World, Indoraptor in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, plus Scorpios rex in Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous). "I just felt like we'd done it," he told Screen Rant in June. "We had hybrids in the first two movies and we have them in Camp Cretaceous. I don’t know, it didn’t feel tonally right with this movie. This movie is much more of a science thriller than the others. I really wanted to focus on dinosaurs that really existed. That’s what made me fall in love with this franchise in the first place. And I love there’s a generation that’s super into the hybrids. A lot of young kids who came up watching Jurassic World really love them, and I love that we got to do them. But real dinosaurs are awesome; they don’t need to be hybrids to be awesome."
A recently released Jurassic World: Dominion prologue offered a first look at several dinosaurs that are completely new to the franchise, including Dreadnoughtus, Giganotosaurus, Quetzalcoatlus, Oviraptor, Nasutoceratops, Moros intrepidus and Iguanadon. Giganotosaurus, in particular, has the stature to mirror the dinosaur alluded to in the photo, but the size of the front claws doesn't line up.
"In this movie we really get to show some dinosaurs that I love that we've been holding onto for a long time, knowing we had the chance to go back to the cretaceous period and see the Oviraptor and the Giganotosaurus," Trevorrow recently explained. "Several of these are going to play major roles in the film itself."
Jurassic World: Dominion arrives in theaters June 10, 2022.
Source: Total Film magazine, via GamesRadar+