J.A. Bayona Leads Field to Direct ‘Jurassic World’ Sequel

J.A. Bayona has emerged top of the list at Universal to direct the follow up to Jurassic World Rebirth, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

The Spanish filmmaker who directed Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in 2018 is understood to not yet be in formal talks with Universal about getting back on the island as part of the Jurassic Park franchise. But Bayona has emerged as a frontrunner after Gareth Edwards left the sequel to 2025’s Jurassic World Rebirth over “creative differences.”

Bayona’s possible return suggests the Hollywood studio may want to work with a director familiar with the Jurassic Park franchise. Rebirth grossed $869 million last year on the strength of performances by Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey.

Universal has been moving at pace on the sequel and has a script by returning scribe David Koepp. Johansson, Ali and Bailey are expected to return for the next film, contingent on schedules. The dinosaur island franchise also has continuity in the involvement of Jurassic Park director Steven Spielberg and producer Frank Marshall.

Besides knowing his way around a monster movie, Bayona has become accustomed to big-budget Hollywood productions like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and The Rings of Power, the Amazon mega-series for which he directed the first two episodes.

He also directed the Oscar-nominated The Impossible in 2012, a real-life story of survival that starred Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor and Tom Holland. And for Netflix, Bayona helmed Society of the Snow, a drama based on the true-life tale of the Uruguayan 1972 Andes flight disaster.