‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ Confirms Replacement of Franchise’s Biggest Star

It looks like Jurassic World is starting over—again—but this time, it’s not bringing back one of its biggest stars.

Universal Pictures’ upcoming Jurassic World Rebirth, due for theatrical release on July 2, 2025, marks a major shift for the dinosaur-centric franchise. Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) leads the all-new cast as Zora Bennett, a covert ops specialist on a mission to a long-forgotten InGen island teeming with mutated prehistoric monsters.

But while there will be plenty of new dinosaurs for audiences to sink their teeth into, one familiar face is missing: Rexy, the iconic Tyrannosaurus Rex from the original 1993 film.

After helping to launch the franchise in Jurassic Park (1993) and returning in the sequels Jurassic World (2015), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), and Jurassic World Dominion (2022), the queen of Isla Nublar has apparently roared her last roar. The new film has no returning human or dino characters, and fans are already assuming the worst.

The official synopsis for the film describes a planet where most dinosaurs have died out due to ecological collapse. At the end of Dominion, Rexy was safely living out her days at Biosyn Valley. But Rebirth makes no mention of her, and she’s entirely absent from the trailer, too.

In her place is a new T-Rex—visually distinct, and intentionally so.

In a recent exclusive with Empire Magazine, director Gareth Edwards (2014’s Godzilla) compared the new Rex, which appears very briefly in the official trailer, to that of Ray Harryhausen’s fantasy Western film, The Valley of the Gwangi (1969), in which the dinosaur has a more upright stance as opposed to Jurassic‘s paleo-accurate forward-leaning posture.

Related: All the Main Dinosaur Villains From the ‘Jurassic Park’ Movies Ranked Worst To Best

Edwards even likened the new Rex to a different actor playing the same archetype. “The original Jurassic Park T-Rex is one actor, now here’s another one,” he said.

Of course, there’s more than just one new T-Rex in the mix. Rebirth features everything from a gigantic Quetzalcoatlus to full-blown mutant hybrids like the Distortus Rex and Mutadons, pterosaur/raptor crossbreeds.

So, while Rebirth may not have any iconic characters, it certainly sounds like the start of a new Jurassic era. But whether it can survive without the likes of Rexy remains to be seen.

When Is Jurassic World Rebirth Out?

Jurassic World Rebirth releases in theaters on July 2. It stars Scarlett Johansson (Avengers: Endgame), Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton), Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (The Lincoln Lawyer), Rupert Friend (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Mahershala Ali (The Green Book), Luna Blaise (Manifest), David Iacono (Dead Boy Detectives), Audrina Miranda (Lopez vs Lopez), Philippine Velge (Station Eleven), Bechir Sylvain (BMF), and Ed Skrein (Deadpool).

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